(Atlantic) The Cass County Board of Supervisors appointed Vanessa Strazdas as the new County Attorney at their meeting this morning.
The Board received four applicants for the position and the Supervisors noted that all four were very well qualified.
Supervisor John Hartkopf said Strazdas was a unanimous choice from the area law enforcement.
“We are spending an enormous amount of money on law enforcement and it’s not for traffic tickets, it’s because we have an underground war going on that the average citizen isn’t aware of, primarily with methamphetamine, and we need a prosecutor up there and somebody that is very effective,” said Hartkopf. “I spoke to a long time Fourth District Judge, she was his top recommendation based on several points and we are comfortable with that. All four candidates were qualified but law enforcement was adamant about this and we are supporting law enforcement in this decision.”
Strazdas grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and went to Central High School. She is a 2010 graduate of Creighton Law School. Since graduating, Strazdas has practiced exclusively in Iowa in an office in Council Bluffs.
“I’ve done primarily criminal and juvenile law with a little bit of other stuff mixed in, but those have been my primary focuses,” said Strazdas.
Strazdas said her goal is to be an effective prosecutor of the cases that really affect Cass County.
“The Supervisors talked a lot about the methamphetamine problem and that is something that I do take a hard line on. I’ve seen how that affects the families in this area particularly through my work as a juvenile defender. I’ve seen the number of children that have to be removed from their parents care and just really the plague that problem is. I would say at least 70-percent of my juvenile cases happened because of parents using methamphetamine. So that’s something that’s very important to me,” explained Strazdas. “I look forward to trying cases and being in the court room.”
The Supervisors began the process of appointing a new County Attorney after Governor Kim Reynolds announced her appointment of County Attorney Michael Hooper as District Court Judge in the Fourth Judicial District.
