District Attorney and NLV Courts Headed for a Showdown

On July 6, North Las Vegas justice court officials added a third morning criminal session on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, expecting Clark County DA David Roger to send a third prosecutor to handle the extra courtroom time. Roger, apparently, had different expectations. From the RJ:

Roger, struggling with the loss of dozens of positions because of the ongoing county budget crunch, decided to staff the three extra courtroom sessions with the two prosecutors currently assigned to North Las Vegas.

Chief Justice of the Peace Natalie Tyrrell did not like Roger's response, so she has "instructed Roger to staff all three courtrooms with a prosecutor beginning Aug. 3." This is where things get juicy, as Roger has publicly stated that he has no intention of sending an additional prosecutor:

"We have two attorneys there. We'll cover the third calendar when we get there," Roger said. "We are incredibly short-staffed. We have lost 60 positions over the last two years, and our caseload has not gone down."

Roger said he doesn't believe Tyrrell has the authority to order him to send another prosecutor to the North Las Vegas courts. He also said the dispute could be resolved easily if the justices of the peace considered some alternatives, such as holding the third session in the afternoon instead of the morning. That would allow him to more easily staff the extra sessions, he said.

Silly David Roger, don't you know that Clark County judges need to be at home in time to watch Judge Joe Brown in the afternoons? How are they supposed to hold court?

One of our tipsters seems to think that the NLV Judges aren't actually busy enough to hold a third calendar, but are in fact just attempting to "look busy for the public." Terri March, the administrator of North Las Vegas Justice Court, begs to differ:

"Our judges are in the best position to know and understand the community in which they live and serve," March said in a statement. "This decision was made in an effort to do everything possible to benefit and protect the citizens of North Las Vegas."

Our favorite quotes in the article come from Assistant District Attorney Chris Owens. The RJ published various snippets of letters written by Owens in this ongoing fight. This bit of prose brought tears to our eyes:

"It is obvious to most of us who have worked within this specialized community that there is an ominous consequence to unilateral action," he wrote.

"Rogue undertakings place an unfair and unnecessary strain upon the resources of sister institutions. The beneficiaries of these maverick endeavors are often the purveyors of crime, rather than the law-abiding citizenry."

"Ominous consequences?" "Unilateral actions?" "Rouge undertakings?" "Maverick endeavors?" We are still talking about the NLV justice courts, right? Does Owens moonlight as a presidential speechwriter?

How about it, commenters, any opinion one way or the other? Is the DA being unreasonable? Is NLV just trying to "look busy?" Either way, it should be interesting to see what happens on August 3rd.

(LVRJ; Thanks, Tipsters!)

You're Welcome.

Who said amnesty programs with stupid names don't work? The "Pay the Ticket, Avoid the Click-it" program just reeled in the biggest fish of all (thanks, of course, to our post).  David Drum, the man who owed $20,057 in traffic fines turned himself in on Tuesday. From the RJ:

[Drum] said he got caught up in a vicious cycle where he would get ticketed for driving on a suspended license then would lose his license. He said the violations, especially those over $1,000, add up fast. But Drum didn’t give detailed explanations on why he let his tickets lapse.

We're not so sure accumulating traffic tickets qualifies as a "vicious cycle," but whatever. Drum said he turned himself in because he just wanted to "get this past," but we all know that with the extreme notoriety he gained by being associated with WWL, it was only a matter of time. You're next, Marco Manzy!

(RJ)

Justice Court's Most Wanted

lvcourtsblog has an interesting post about the effectiveness of the traffic ticket amnesty program currently ongoing in Las Vegas Township Justice Court. The "Pay the Ticket, Avoid the Click-it" [groan] program has improved the number of people paying past due traffic tickets by 15 percent since the campaign began November 17, 2008.

The best part, however, is the listing of Ten Most Wanted Individuals with Outstanding Traffic Fines (of whom the program has yet to bring in a single one):

Name	City	Amount Owed
David Drum	Las Vegas	$20,057
Marco Manzy	Las Vegas	$18,164
Brandon Peachey	Las Vegas	$17,195
Mario Ramirez-Gomez	Las Vegas	$14,754
Lance Lauara	Las Vegas	$14,502
Jose Garcia	Las Vegas	$13,977
Lamont Pitts	Las Vegas	$13,028
Anthony Reed	Las Vegas	$12,390
Deshawn Byrd	Las Vegas	$10,938
Alan Berroteran	Las Vegas	$10,636

Wow, $20,057 in unpaid traffic tickets. Anyone think those guys in the pink building can get Dave off with no points?

(lvcourtsblog)

Weekend Roundup

Best prison photo ever (see photo to the right) (RJ) 

Congratulations to Judge Jennifer Elliot, the Eighth Judicial District Court's new Adult Drug Court Judge.  (lvcourts)

Celebrity prosecution watch: Las Vegas Justice Court just issued an arrest warrant for hip-hop genius and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy star Mos Def. (RJ)

Early Week Roundup

Nevada inmates will be doing a lot of handwriting of their habeas corpus petitions now that typewriters are banned in state prisons. (Review-Journal)

An article in the Las Vegas Sun suggests Justice Court Judges may be abusing their ability to have temp judges sit in their place from time to time. (Las Vegas Sun) [The Sun points out that the Justice Court Judges are not required to track how much time they had temp judges sit in their place]

A federal judges in Boston enjoined a bunch of MIT hackers from giving a presentation in Vegas in how to scam free subway rides in Boston. (WSJ Blog)

Tues Roundup

The FBI is referring to Vegas as "mortgage fraud ground zero". (USA Today)

Justice courts may be evicting tenants too quickly and ignoring the 3 day notice requirement. (Review-Journal)

Editorial suggests the Nevada Judicial Commission should speed up the Halverson mess so voters will know whether our state's most infamous jurist will even be allowed to sit on the bench before voters have to cast their ballots on her seat. (Review-Journal) [I disagree. I think voters should assume that it would be a mistake, no matter what, to allow Judge Halverson to ever sit on the bench again--and they should vote her off--Constitutional challenge notwithstanding]

Bad news or good news for tax attorneys? The tax commission approved the Governor's tax amnesty plan. (Review-Journal)


Labor lawyers are suiting up for a battle as workers at MGM's City Center project walked off the job due to a dispute with management over safety concerns for the workers. (Review-Journal)


And the Nevada Supreme Court overturned a murder conviction yesterday based on judicial and prosecutorial errors. (Nevada Appeal)


Congratulations to William Devine II, who Armstrong Teasdale LLP named associate in the firm's intellectual property services group. And Congratulations to Brian Schusterman, who Lionel Sawyer picked up as an associate in the Reno firm's business law department. (Business Press.com)

Friday Roundup

The Reno-Gazette Journal filed a lawsuit for access to details about Gov. Gibbons concealed weapons permit [and then they reported on it]. (Reno Gazette-Journal) Meanwhile, the certification of the firearms instructor who certified Gov. Gibbons has been revoked (Review-Journal)

The Nevada Supremes ruled the $65 million refund granted to Southern California Edison by the state tax commission is invalid because the meeting was closed-door. (Reno Gazette-Journal)

In Endoscopy news: Whoops. Dr. Needles and his staff apparently failed to provide the names of 10,000 patients to investigators of the Hep-C outbreak and the 10,000 people haven't been notified. (Review-Journal) And the police have finalized a pact to give every clinic patient one copy of their records. (Review-Journal)

The former execs of Las Vegas based PurchasePro were excused in the software company's revenue-boosting scheme trial (Review-Journal)

Las Vegas Now has an interesting profile of former Mustang Ranch brothel owner Joe Conforte who is in hiding from arrest in Brazil (Las Vegas Now)

A Nevada professor was held in contempt for filing vexacious multiple lawsuits (Review-Journal)

In the teen [was it a gang hit] murder trial, during a preliminary hearing, schoolmates of victim indicated the alleged killer flashed a gang sign (Review-Journal)

In the Sands corp. trial over Macau fees, Judge Leavitt denied the Plaintiff's request for a mistrial (Review-Journal)

The Las Vegas Sun is hammering away again at the fact that Justice Court is silent in the afternoons (Las Vegas Sun) [at least this time they point out the judges are working on paperwork in the afternoons]

The Nevada attorney general’s office has opened an investigation into the state's handling of a case involving the deaths of two workers at the Orleans (Las Vegas Sun)

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay denied on Tuesday that in 2001, he blocked legislation that could have hindered China's Olympic bid on behalf of Vegas mogul Sheldon Adelson (Review-Journal)

Bullivant Houser Bailey launched a new sustainability industry group in honor of Earth Day (Earth Times)

Let's get ready to Rumble! The Roundup

The trial of Personal Injury attorney Noel Gage began today and Gage remains positive that he'll be acquitted. After allegedly gerry-rigging medical records for Plaintiffs and allegedly changing their treatment to make for a better Plaintiff's case, this is partially a trial of how much shit Nevada courts will allow from its attorneys. (Local ABC Affiliate)

What the hell is happening to Nevada and our libertarian, freewheeling idea? First, we vote down a measure to legalize marijuana and now we're limiting who gets to receive the traditional quickie Nevada divorce (Las Vegas Sun). Combine that with the Hookers for Jesus, and what the hell is happening to this state?

Sad profile of the Urbanski family's continuing hunt for justice in the Pacman Jones strip club death case. (Las Vegas Sun)

Everybody's favorite psycho, Darren Mack, is asking to withdraw his guilty pleas (Reno Gazette Journal)

Editorial today calls for Justice Court Judges to find other alternative before requesting a new courthouse and a night court (Las Vegas Sun)

And, up in Reno, the District Attorney is looking to use a nuisance ordinance to trap gangs (Nevada Appeal)

Where did all the Justices of the Peace go?

Justices of the Peace want a night court for Vegas. Prosecutors want the Justices of the Peace to change their schedules.

The Las Vegas Sun reports:

On weekday afternoons, most of the courtrooms of Las Vegas’ 10 elected justices of the peace are among the quietest areas of the Regional Justice Center — a stark contrast to the heavy pedestrian traffic jamming those courtrooms before the lunch hour.

Most of the justices of the peace, whose salaries range from $128,700 to $154,440, simply don’t hold court after lunch each day — a pattern courthouse officials and those who work with them acknowledge has become the norm.

“If you’re trying to get a search warrant signed in the afternoon, the Regional Justice Center is not the place to go,” said Chris Collins, executive director of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, the union that represents Metro Police officers. “You have to go find the justices of the peace wherever they are.” Collins said he was unsure where that typically is.

The Justice Courts stand empty in the afternoons even as court officials lobby to build a new tower of courtrooms near the 17-story Regional Justice Center — at an expected cost well over $200 million. New space, the officials say, is needed to accommodate a mounting caseload.Las Vegas Justice Court, which is a step below District Court in the state judicial system, is to add two judges in January. The plan also involves adding ­two courtrooms expected to cost at least $1.5 million each.

Far be for me to not criticize Vegas judges, but don't the Justices of the Peace need time to prepare for a full schedule of court the next day? Maybe the reporter should have checked with some of the Justices of the Peace and asked how they spend their afternoons.

I love a good scandal, but this isn't even a tempest in a teapot until either party takes the next step. It's just a half assed reporting job.