Who would be your top three?

A helpful commenter has provided a list of the names purported to be up to fill the vacancy left after Judge Wall sold his soul. According to our commenter, these are the names up to fill Wall's shoes:

• Lucinda L. Coumou, 47, Las Vegas, Clark County District Attorney’s Office
• Philip J. Dabney, 51, Henderson, Holland & Hart LLP
• Michael D. Davidson, 56, Las Vegas, Kolesar & Leatham
• Michael A. Federico, 39, Las Vegas, of Olson, Conner, Gormley & Desruisseaux
• Craig B. Friedberg, 52, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Craig B. Friedberg
• Bruce L. Gale, 55, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Bruce L. Gale
• Kurt K. Harris, 46, Henderson, Harris Law Office
• Martin Hart, 47, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Martin Hart
• James A. Kohl, 45, Las Vegas, Howard & Howard
• Michael A. Koning, 60, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Michael A. Koning P.C.
• Judge Chris Lee, 36, North Las Vegas, North Las Vegas Justice Court
• Charles J. Lybarger, 48, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Charles Lybarger
• Troy E. Peyton, 50, Las Vegas, Troy E. Peyton, P.C.
• Marc D. Risman, 55, Henderson, Law Offices of Marc Risman
• David J. Rivers, 63, Las Vegas, Leavitt, Sully & Rivers
• Beverly Salhanick, 52, Las Vegas, Law Offices of Beverly Salhanick
• Jerome T. Tao, 42, Las Vegas, Clark County Public Defender’s Office
• Jeffrey J. Whitehead, 50, Henderson, Jeffrey J. Whitehead, Esq.
• Bernard B. Zadrowski, 45, Las Vegas, Clark County District Attorney’ s Office

If that list is accurate, three names will be chosen from it by the Judicial Selection Committee and forwarded to the governor, who will then appoint Wall's replacement.

If it were up to you, who from the above list would make your top three?

(Thanks, Commenter!)

Jumping the Wall

Once again showing who runs this town, Mainor Eglet has reeled in a couple of major players to fill that hole left by Cottle: Attorney Artemus Ham (of the Hall), and currently-seated District Court Judge David Wall.

Judge Wall's decision to leave the bench, effective August 27th (!), is certainly the shocker here. Wall is, in our humble opinion, the best judge currently sitting on the EJDC bench, and his absence will certainly be felt. We are clearly not alone in our respect for him - Wall was one of two judges (David Barker being the other) who scored a 91% retention rating in the latest Judging the Judges poll.

Which brings up an interesting issue (to us, anyway): Does an elected judge have a duty to the public that elected him to stay on the bench for his entire term? Wall's 6-year term does not expire until 2014. Assuming the world doesn't end in 2012, he's skipping out on the voting public (who - let's be honest - likely picked his name on the ballot because it's also a noun) a bit early.

What do you think, commenters? Should we hogtie Wall to the bench and force him to continue to make rational, informed decisions for the next 3.5 years? We know there's (apparently) no legal basis for making him finish out his term, but as an elected judge, should there be?

(News 3; Thanks, Tipsters!)

Judging the Judges 2010 - District Court

The RJ's Judging the Judges poll results are out, and our district court judges run the gamut from good to bad. Here's how the numbers brake down for our DC judges:

• Judge Valerie Adair: 80% would retain
• Judge David Barker: 91% would retain
• Judge Linda Bell: 81% would retain
• Judge James Bixler: 78% would retain
• Judge Elissa Cadish: 86% would retain
• Judge Kenneth Cory: 74% would retain
• Judge Kathleen Delaney: 81% would retain
• Judge Mark Denton: 81% would retain
• Judge Allan Earl: 82% would retain
• Judge Jackie Glass: 60% would retain
• Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez: 83% would retain
• Judge Kathy Hardcastle: 46% would retain
• Judge Douglas Herndon: 87% would retain
• Judge Susan Johnson: 82% would retain
• Judge Michelle Leavitt: 43% would retain
• Judge Stefany Miley: 42% would retain
• Judge Donald Mosley: 57% would retain
• Judge Abbi Silver: 62% would retain
• Judge Douglas Smith: 63% would retain
• Judge Jennifer Togliatti: 83% would retain
• Judge Valorie Vega: 65% would retain
• Judge Michael Villani: 78% would retain
• Judge David Wall: 91% would retain
• Judge Jessie Walsh: 36% would retain
• Judge Timothy Williams: 82% would retain

Congratulations to the Davids (Barker and Wall) for being the only DC judges to get greater than a 90% retention score ... and congratulations to Nevada voters for giving Jessie Walsh at least four more years on the bench. Let us know your thoughts on the results of the district court poll in the comments. We'll be posting about the remaining polls throughout the week.

(LVRJ - District Court PDF)

But Things Were Going So Well ...

Someone by the name of Elizabeth Halverson (Get this: she claims to be a former judge ... can you imagine anyone actually voting for that lady?!) just lost a defamation suit brought by her former assistant, Ileen Spoor. From the LVRJ:

Spoor sued Halverson in 2007 for defamation and placing someone in false light, alleging that the judge lied about her to the media by saying Spoor illegally fixed tickets and took Spoor’s Rolodex and files.

A jury trial was scheduled for late October, but Judge David Wall granted summary judgment in favor Spoor on Thursday.

Wait ... summary judgment? Well, look at the big balls on Wall! Good for you, Judge. We thought summary judgment was just one of those law school myths, like the Rules of Professional Conduct.

As for damages, they are still being "calculated." Good luck Ileen, can't imagine she's got a whole lot in the bank. Of course, you could always try to garnish her lunch money.

Nice of you to visit, Liz, now please go away.

(LVRJ)

Midweek Roundup

Attention sex offenders, move to Nevada!  We care about your rights.  (Las Vegas Now)

The defendant who asked "am I my brother's keeper" in front of Judge Wall found out that apparently, he was and stabbing his brother to death = 10-25 yrs.  (RJ)

Congratulations to Christina Mallatt, who was named an associate at Fisher & Phillips.  (RJ)

And congrats to Kummer Kaempfer Bonner Renshaw & Ferrario, which was named Nevada's top law firm for land use and zoning law, mergers and acquisitions, government relations law, energy law and corporate law by the 2009 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. (LV Business Press)