Born in Albuquerque, he decided to join the Peace Corps after graduating from St. John’s College in Santa Fe. He was assigned to Peru and spent not quite two years there. His most vivid memory of that period was the May 30, 1970, earthquake which devastated many of the villages in the country, killing more than 60,000 people, which included four Peace Corps volunteers. In fact, the only thing that may have saved him and his then wife, he said, was the fact that earthquake occurred on Sunday afternoon. If it happened at night, he faced serious injury or death because a chunk of his wall collapsed and destroyed the foot of his bed. After returning to the United States, he went to law school, graduating from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1974. After a couple of years of private practice and working for the U.S. Department of the Interior, he went back to school and got a master’s degree in taxation from Boston University with plans to stay on the East Coast and possibly work for the IRS.
Peru RPCV Dan Cleavinger who is now the senior trial attorney in the McKinley County District Attorney’s Office
DA adds experience to his roster
Copyright © 2009
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer
GALLUP — The McKinley County District Attorney’s Office in recent days has been getting a noticeable Farmington flavor.
This is because of a decision by District Attorney Karl Gillson to add two new staff members, both of whom have worked at the DA’s office in Farmington.
In fact, one of them, Lyndy Bennett, who is now the senior trial attorney in the office, was the DA in Farmington until Dec. 30. The other new staff hire is Dan Cleavinger, who was a former assistant DA in Farmington specializing in domestic violence, DWI and juvenile cases. He will be handling domestic violence cases here as well.
[Excerpt]
In contrast to Bennett, Cleavinger has spent most of his career as a civil law attorney, handling things like wills, estates and divorces.
Born in Albuquerque, he decided to join the Peace Corps after graduating from St. John’s College in Santa Fe. He was assigned to Peru and spent not quite two years there.
His most vivid memory of that period was the May 30, 1970, earthquake which devastated many of the villages in the country, killing more than 60,000 people, which included four Peace Corps volunteers. In fact, the only thing that may have saved him and his then wife, he said, was the fact that earthquake occurred on Sunday afternoon. If it happened at night, he faced serious injury or death because a chunk of his wall collapsed and destroyed the foot of his bed.
After returning to the United States, he went to law school, graduating from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1974. After a couple of years of private practice and working for the U.S. Department of the Interior, he went back to school and got a master’s degree in taxation from Boston University with plans to stay on the East Coast and possibly work for the IRS.
That didn’t happen. Instead he moved back to Santa Fe, where for the next 23 years or so, he worked in Espańola and Tierra Amarilla as a private attorney. In 2003, he became a public defender — the first time he got any criminal experience — for six months and then went to work for the Farmington DA’s office.
In 2007, a new magistrate judge position was created in Aztec and he was appointed to the position but he ran and lost in 2008, stepping down on Dec. 31.
When he heard that a position for an assistant district attorney was open in Gallup, he said he joined at the chance because he though Gillson would be a good boss and because he had worked under Bennett in Farmington.
