CCDA and NLV Courts Continue Pissing Match

That August 3rd deadline came and went without incident, but North Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Stephen Dahl decided to lob a grenade at the Clark County District Attorney's office over the weekend.

Speaking to the press, Dahl claimed that 20% of felonies go unpunished for lack of a prosecutor. From LV Legal News:

“We dismiss a lot of cases,” he said, and there is a price to pay. This fiscal year, 2,625 felony arrestees were charged in North Las Vegas. Dahl said 539 were dismissed. Most of them, he said, were dismissed “pursuant to statute,” meaning the state failed to meet deadlines, such as holding a plea hearing for a detained person within 72 hours, or a probable cause review within 48 hours.

Dahl goes on to talk about a case where a man was released on a domestic violence charge and proceeded to kill his girlfriend and himself.

District Attorney David Roger says it's a funding issue:

The issue is manpower. District Attorney David Roger said he can’t send three deputies to North Las Vegas Justice Court because there are dozens of unfilled positions. “We’d love to have a prosecutor for every courtroom in the county,” said Roger, “but we’ve lost 60 positions.”

Our tipster tells us that the DA now sends two deputies to North Las Vegas - one stays in Dahl's courtroom the entire time, and the other goes back-and-forth between JP Natalie Tyrrell and JP Chris Lee. If true, we're not sue what Dahl has to complain about - but Tyrrell and Lee should be pissed!

It looks like Dahl is essentially calling Roger to the mat. The response, if there is one, should be interesting.

(LV Legal News; Thanks Tipster!)

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!)