Assistant attorney general Anne Cathcart dies

Special Assistant Attorney General Anne Cathcart died Tuesday morning of leukemia.

Cathcart's most visible assignment for the attorney general's office was as primary legislative liaison during the 1997 and 1999 sessions.

She was hospitalized Monday after being stricken suddenly by what officials described as a very aggressive form of leukemia.

She is survived by her husband, Dr. Robert Bertrando, daughters Grace and Christine Crosley and stepsons Neil and Marc Bertrando. No arrangements have been made at this point.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa expressed her sympathies to Cathcart's family and friends.

Assistant Attorney General Tom Patton described Cathcart as "a very special person."

"Anne was simply a wonderful person to work with who never had an unkind word to say about anyone and who always wanted to know how she could help," he said. "To say that Anne was one in a million would be an understatement. Anne was truly one of a kind."

She received her juris doctorate in 1983 from the University of Santa Clara School of Law in California and began working as a legal researcher for the AG's office in 1988. She was admitted to the bar in 1990.

She was promoted to senior deputy attorney general in 1994 and supervised inmate civil rights litigation for three years. She served on the Ninth Circuit Court task force on prison remedy procedures and was instrumental in developing a case evaluation system for resolving inmate litigation along with the U.S. District Court and Nevada Department of Prisons.

Those efforts and her work with the National Association of Attorneys General on prisoner litigation reform have helped reduce Nevada's inmate litigation by 66 percent.

She was designated a special assistant to the attorney general in June 1998.

Most recently she represented the state in the tobacco litigation which culminated in the master settlement agreement between the tobacco industry and 46 states, including Nevada.

Cathcart was 52.