Very effective assistance of counsel ...

Time to open up the rumor mill!

Here's what we've heard about the so-called "PD scandal" so far:

A female deputy public defender (let's call her Suzy Squarebush) allegedly got caught giving an inmate (let's call him Prince Charming) oral sex while visiting the inmate at Clark County Detention Center.

Suzy was allegedly caught because she photographed the act, and sent the photos to Charming's cell phone (how an inmate has a cell phone, we have no idea). Charming then allegedly showed the photos around to some inmate friends ... thus blowing everything. [Rimshot!]

Anyone have more information on this?

(Thanks, Tipsters!)

Coming Soon: The RJC-HMO Plan

The Supremes have put our district court judges on notice that, beginning December 1st, criminal defendants who were previously represented free of charge (to them, anyway) will now be assessed a "fee." From the LVRJ:

In a nutshell, indigent defendants who are represented by the public defender or a private appointed attorney will be charged on a sliding scale -- a minimum $250 if their case is resolved at the justice court level and up to a maximum $750 if the case nears trial or goes to trial. The more work put into a case, the higher the fee.

Whether to impose the fee is at the discretion of the judges. Judge Herndon summed up the fees this way: "This is their co-pay, now we're an HMO."

Clark County Public Defender Phil Kohn said that the PD's office is not the one imposing the fee, nor will they be handling the collection of the fees. This raises an interesting question: Who will be handling collections? Somehow we doubt it will be the DA.

The current plan seems full of problems, but the district courts are apparently going forward with it on December 1st, problems or not.

(LVRJ)

RJ Publishes "Magic Number" List for Public Employees

Oddly veiled as a hit-piece on our brave firefighters, the RJ has published a story accompanied by a HUGE Excel spreadsheet (upper-left corner) listing the salaries of every single Clark County employee.

The list includes the salaries of our local DA's and PD's, and some of their salary/retirement packages put our own Magic Number list to shame. (BTW ... we're still taking tips for our 2009 list of civil firm salary/benefit info)

Becoming a "public servant" is starting to look better by the day.

(LVRJ)

Who will get the nod for Judge Sandoval's Judge Jones' spot on the bench?

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto
She’s Democrat and “effective and popular" according to Tobias. (RJ) Plus, President Obama seems to like the diversity angle with his judges and Cortez Masto would add some Latina flavor to the pale Nevada bench. Cortez Masto is also a native Nevadan. (AG website) She graduated Cum Laude from Gonzaga University School of Law, in Spokane, Washington in 1990. (AG website) Cortez Masto became Attorney General of Nevada in 2007 and worked as Assistant County Manager for Clark County for five years before that--giving her experience in the north and the south of the state.

Federal Public Defender Franny Forsman

Barbara Buckley

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy A. Leen

U.S. Magistrate Judge George W. Foley, Jr.

TEMPLATE FOR FED JUDGES:
Magistrate Judge McQuaid has spent 13 yrs on the federal bench, appointed as a magistrate in 1996. (US Dist Ct) He received his law degree from Willamette University College of Law in 1971, and was admitted to the State Bar of Nevada that year. Before his appointment to the bench in 1996, Judge McQuaid was a partner in the law firm of Georgeson, McQuaid, Thompson & Angaran in Reno. Biggest hurdle: he’s a Republican in a Democratic Presidency, but based on seniority on the bench, he may be the man for the job. (US Dist Ct)

Who's Going to Get Judge Sandoval's Spot?

With U.S. District Court Judge Brian Sandoval stepping down from the bench for a rumored run for Governor against Jim Gibbons, names are starting to be tossed out for who should fill Sandoval's spot.

The RJ reports:

Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice James Hardesty, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Washoe District Judge Brent Adams are among the names surfacing as possible replacements for U.S. District Judge Brian Sandoval

. . . historically nominees to the U.S. District Court in Reno have come from Northern Nevada, which makes Hardesty and Adams -- both Democrats -- contenders for the job, said Carl Tobias, a former UNLV law professor now teaching at the University of Richmond School of Law in Virginia.

So let's get a list going and generate some odds:

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto
She’s Democrat and “effective and popular" according to Tobias. (RJ) Plus, President Obama seems to like the diversity angle with his judges and Cortez Masto would add some Latina flavor to the pale Nevada bench. Cortez Masto is also a native Nevadan. (AG website) She graduated Cum Laude from Gonzaga University School of Law, in Spokane, Washington in 1990. (AG website) Cortez Masto became Attorney General of Nevada in 2007 and worked as Assistant County Manager for Clark County for five years before that--giving her experience in the north and the south of the state.

Magistrate Judge Robert A. McQuaid, Jr.
Magistrate Judge McQuaid has spent 13 yrs on the federal bench, appointed as a magistrate in 1996. (US Dist Ct) He received his law degree from Willamette University College of Law in 1971, and was admitted to the State Bar of Nevada that year. Before his appointment to the bench in 1996, Judge McQuaid was a partner in the law firm of Georgeson, McQuaid, Thompson & Angaran in Reno. Biggest hurdle: he’s a Republican in a Democratic Presidency, but based on seniority on the bench, he may be the man for the job. (US Dist Ct)

Magistrate Judge Valerie P. Cooke
Magistrate Judge Cooke has spent 10 yrs on the federal bench, appointed as a magistrate in 1999. (US Dist Ct) Prior to her appointment, she was a partner in the law firm of McDonald Carano Wilson, where she practiced to creditors’ rights in bankruptcy and commercial litigation. Judge Cooke received her J.D. degree from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Another plus in her column: She’s got legal legacy chops too since she’s a third generation Nevada lawyer. (US Dist Ct) Another plus for her: she’s a Democrat in a Democratic Presidency. McQuaid may have three years on her, but the politics of nominations may move her ahead of the candidates already sitting on the federal bench

Vito de la Cruz
De la Cruz is an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Reno, Nevada. (Linked In) He's got the credentials, getting his J.D. in 1985 from the University of California-Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. (HP) Before becoming a Fed. PD, he worked for California Rural Legal Assistance in the area of employment discrimination and farm labor issues. Biggest plus for de la Cruz in the era of diversity: he is half American Indian (Yaqui)and half Chicano. Currently, there is only one Native American on the entire federal bench. (RJ)

Washoe County District Judge Brent Adams
Judge Adams has sat on the District Court of Washoe County since 1989 and has been elected three times without opposition. (Washoe Courts bio) According to his bio, he has consistently received among the highest retention ratings and judicial performance evaluations by the Washoe County Bar Association in biennial surveys since 1994. Judge Adams graduated from the University of Arizona College of Law in 1974. Need more credentials? Judge Adams initiated the Washoe County Drug Court, is the founding presiding judge of the Washoe County Business Court and is Editor in Chief of the Nevada Civil Practice Manual and Forms (second and third editions).

Chief Justice James W. Hardesty
From the NV Supremes website: He’s a native Nevadan, born and raised in Reno. Got his JD from University of Pacific McGeorge School of Law in May 1975. Worked in private practice from 1975 through 1998, when he was elected District Court Judge in Washoe County District Court. In November 2004, Chief Justice Hardesty was elected as Supreme Court Justice for the Nevada Supreme Court, where he helped to implement the state's business courts.

So, who's it going to be readers?

Give What Back?

Who among us hasn't had a brief lapse of memory and walked out of a store with something we didn't pay for? Who hasn't had our kid snag something off the shelf of the Kwik-E-Mart, only to discover it later while loading him/her into the car? Who hasn't walked into a store at the Sundance Resort, snagged a necklace off a mannequin, put it in your murse, signed your name to a few postcards, and left without paying? Oh, you guys haven't done that last one? Guess it's just us and Gary Guymon then.

You may remember Guymon as the rock-star District Attorney who put away Black Widow murderess Margaret Rudin. Or, more likely, you may remember him as one of the attorneys involved in the infamous G-Sting debacle of 2003.

Guymon's been busy since then, he moved over to the Public Defender's office (where they are, by nature, a little more tolerable of alleged criminal-types), and apparently he has been doing a bit of petty larceny on the side. From LVNow:

On the afternoon of March 24, 2009, just as a clerk walks away from the counter and into a backroom, a man is seen entering the front door. He quickly focuses his attention on a mannequin by the door.

With almost no hesitation, the man on the tape plucks a necklace from the mannequin. He checks around to see if anyone saw him. He then moves across the store toward the counter and as he walks he appears to slip the necklace into a bag he was carrying.

The man then proceeds to fill out three postcards at the counter, which is how the store was later able to get an idea of who he was. He filled out the postcards, sent one to his wife and one to his office secretary and signed his name -- Gary.

We still have a hard time believing this ... it just doesn't seem right. Guymon has to be at the top of the County's pay-scale by now, and his wife is the Guymon in Goldsmith and Guymon. It just doesn't seem possible that he is that hard up for cash.

This one pretty much speaks for itself, we won't rob you of the pleasure of watching George Knapp tell the story himself, complete with the actual surveillance video.

(Las Vegas Now; Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)

Weekend Roundup

Note to anti-tax crusaders: if you refuse to pay federal taxes based on your interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, make sure you don't represent yourself in Federal Court. (Mercury News)

Meanwhile, nightclubs on the strip are getting litigation-happy. (Review-Journal)

The Nevada Supremes continued their quest to have NV Public Defenders at least know their client's name before proceeding with a hearing. (Review-Journal) And new PD standards may be coming soon. (Reno Gazette-Journal)

Apparently working for the Nevada DMV doesn't pay enough; but making fake IDs can help supplement your income. (Las Vegas Sun)

The SEC has filed a complaint against Jason Landess, a candidate for Judge Halverson's seat, alleging that Landess helped set up an improper stock scheme that netted him and six others $3.91 million. (Review-Journal) [wow . . . apparently that judicial seat is reserved for real winners]

Thursday Roundup

An editorial suggests that the backslapping of the Vegas legal industry is coming to an end and attorneys will now be prosecuted for ethics violations. (Review-Journal) [ahem . . . did they forget about the outcome of the Gage trial?]

U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson gave a convicted sex offender a break at sentencing after the man’s lawyer suggested the treatment received by Defendant in federal custody at the North Las Vegas jail was “worse than Guantanamo Bay in some cases.” (Reno Gazette-Journal)

Hey new 1Ls, having trouble figuring out what constitutes an "offer"? Well you can study this multi-million dollar public utilities case where counsel for Nevada Power argued a proposal to sell his company a power plant did not constitute an offer. (Review-Journal)

Congrats to Ryan Works of McDonald Carano Wilson who was recently appointed by the American Bar Association to its Litigation Pretrial Practice & Discovery committee. (Las Vegas Business Press)

Finally, enjoying using Blockshopper.com, to see what kinds of properties in the Vegas valley have been purchased by lawyers? Live it up, because a lawsuit brought by law firm Jones Day is asking the court to require websites to seek permission from the linkee before posting a link to another site. (Prairie State 2.0) Come to think of it, this and every blog that attempts to cite to a source would be destroyed by such a ruling.

Wed Roundup

Defense counsel in the murder-for-hire case where a contract was allegedly taken out on Judge Leavitt and a Clark Co. Assististant D.A. got the chance to question the District Attorney of Clark Co. David Roger and Assistant District Attorney Christopher Lalli on the witness stand about whether the Clark Co. D.A.'s office should be recused from the matter. (Las Vegas Sun)

During the Nevada Supreme Court's hearing over the constitutionality of term limits for elected officials, Justice Jim Hardesty said that the state's rule on term limits for elected officials is unambiguous, agreeing with arguments that 12 years in office means just that. (Review-Journal)

At the most recent round of Nevada Supreme Court Public Defender reform hearings, public defenders, prosecutors, and county managers agreed on the need to implement indigent defense reforms--leaving the question of how unanswered. (Review-Journal)

Congratulations to Glenn Light, who Lewis and Roca named as an associate in its gaming practice group. (Review-Journal)

Thurs Roundup

The FBI announced a major child prostitution bust with links to Las Vegas. At least 65 people have been arrested in Las Vegas as a part of Operation Cross Country, including pimps, prostitutes and people soliciting prostitutes. (Las Vegas Now)

Congratulations to District Judge Arthur Ritchie Jr. [pictured right], the presiding judge for Family Court, who has been named new Chief Judge for the Eighth Judicial District Court. (Review-Journal) In other court personnel news, congratulations to Edward A. Friedland, Esq. who has been selected to serve as the Court Executive Officer and Clerk of the Court of the Clark County Courts. (Harmful Error)

Parents whose 4 yr-old with a genetic disease died after they him left alone in their SUV are facing murder charges. (Review-Journal)

Before his Public Defender could talk to him, a man accused of robbing and beating Oakland Raiders receiver Javon Walker alleged in open court that police pressured his fiance to press charges against him in a domestic violence case. (Review-Journal)

The Nevada Supreme Court will take up the issue of whether term limits for state and local officials are constitutional. Under the current term limits, those who have served for 12 years in office can no longer run for office. (Review-Journal)

Las Vegas Police detectives have submitted a felony case against a well-known tag crew member to the district attorney’s office as a suspect in the graffiti outbreak at the Regional Justice Center. (Las Vegas Sun)

An editorial suggesting that a Clark County Baliff's tasering of a 23 yr-old audio-video technician for the entertainment/education of kids might not have been a good idea. (Las Vegas Sun)

After 25 years of serving the City of Henderson, Police Chief Richard Perkins is retiring. (Las Vegas Now)

In Carson City, an attorney with only 8 yrs of experience is running for a District Court Judicial seat, claiming the requirement that judicial candidates must be licensed for at least 10 years doesn't apply to him because he was licensed before the law went into effect. (Nevada Appeal)

Congress will not be rolling back the Internet gambling ban this year after a House committee deadlocked on an amendment to prevent federal agencies from completing the new rules until the agencies defined "unlawful Internet gambling." (Review-Journal)

An international defense contractor accused of attempting to bribe an Army office is on the loose after cutting his electronic monitoring bracelet and disappearing. Some Assistant U.S. Attorneys are questioning Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leavitt's decision to allow the suspect to remain under electronic monitoring at a friend's home. (Las Vegas Sun)

In Ireland, the lethal toxin Ricin was found in the prison cell of a former Las Vegas poker dealer accused of conspiring with a Clare woman to kill her partner and his two sons. (Breaking News)

Knapp details the legal wrangling that led to a dismissal in the Gage trial while pointing out the absurdity of Gage's claim of being "vindicated" after 8 of 12 jurors in an earlier trial said he was guilty. (Las Vegas City Life)

District Judge Herndon unsealed the three year old malpractice suit against Judge Miley. (Review-Journal)

Finally, Congratulations to Las Vegas lawyer Aaron D. Lovaas who has been named by Mountain States Super Lawyers magazine as one of the top business litigators under 40 in the state of Nevada. (PR Web)

Wed Roundup

An article examines why male attorneys in Vegas ranked female jurists so low in the Judging the Judges survey. (Review-Journal)

Meanwhile, Noel Gage's attorneys are saying the U.S. Attorneys never informed them that the U.S. Attorney's office interviewed [allegedly] crooked Dr. Mark Kabins before the trial began. (Review-Journal)

An article details the story behind the arrest of a Clark Co. Public Defender for domestic abuse and the heavy use of alcohol that preceded the [alleged] assault. (Review-Journal)

And to ensure some domestic violence gender equality: Nevada Assemblywoman Francis Allen was arrested on Saturday for [allegedly] stabbing her husband in the arm with a steak knife. (Review-Journal)

Confirmation, finally, that former NBA star Charles Barkley paid his casino debt. (Review-Journal) Steve Wynn comments that he was obliged to not ignore the debt simply because Sir Charles was famous. (Las Vegas Sun) [Yes, it's clearly a slow news week--I've reported on this 3 times already]

The Aryan nation is active in Nevada prisons--members recently [allegedly] killed one inmate and stabbed another. (Review-Journal)

Tues Roundup

The Nevada teachers and casinos have reached an agreement to keep the gaming tax bid off the ballot next election. (Las Vegas Sun)

U.S. District Court Judge Lloyd George ordered U.S. Marshalls to use necessary force to help a receiver obtain property and records of Las Vegas-based Gold-Quest International, which the government accuses of operating a $27.9 million fraud. (Review-Journal)

Former NBA star Charles Barkley says he's repaid the $400,000 debt owed to Wynn casinos, but D.A. David Rogers says his office haven't seen any money repaid. (Las Vegas Sun) Either way, Sir Charles says he's done with gambling for awhile. (ESPN)

A Deputy Public Defender was arrested on a domestic violence call. (Review-Journal) [First drunk driving, now domestic abuse. Maybe the Clark Co. PDs are getting a little stressed out having 2.5x the recommended felony/gross misdemeanor caseload]

The Review-Journal discusses Chief Judge Hardcastle's [pictured above] low score in the Judging the Judges survey and her legacy as Chief Judge. (Review-Journal)

I-Team covers how kids are treated in the juvenile system through the case study of a 16 yr old girl who robbed a Burger King at gunpoint, but "didn't think it would be that serious". (Las Vegas Now)

Mon Roundup

Former madam and almost brothel owner Heidi Fleiss is being sued for $40,000 in alleged damages to the house she rented in Nye County. (Review-Journal)

The Poker Players Alliance says the online gambling ban is completely unworkable. (Review-Journal)

Petitioners are battling it out in the streets, with rival pitches for or against the tax initiative being thrown at each person that comes along (Las Vegas Sun)

The players in the reform of indigent defense are conflicted about how to solve the problem (Reno Gazette-Journal)

And this week is apparently Gov. Gibbons legal week. First, Judge Maddox ruled that the Governor's divorce records can be sealed and the trial will be closed-door. (Nevada Appeal). And tomorrow, he will have a hearing on his gun permit. (Inside Politics)

Public Defenders call out Judge Glass

The Nevada Supreme Court held a public hearing on Monday to examine Public Defender claims that the District Court's method of determining the mental competency of defendants is broken. At the center of their complaints is how Judge Jackie Glass handles the "competency court".

The Review-Journal reports:

Attorneys with the county public defender's office accused Glass of not allowing them to challenge her rulings. They also accused her of failing to provide full reports on their clients to them and of not allowing defense attorneys to contact doctors, among other charges.

"We saw that our clients' constitutional rights were being violated in a variety of ways," said Christy Craig, chief deputy public defender.

She painted a picture of a system in crisis, where defense attorneys don't know who the doctors are who evaluate their clients and are provided only short summaries of doctors' reports. She also said Glass doesn't allow defense attorneys to bring in doctors of their choosing to make a competency evaluation.

Judge Glass responded to PD concerns at the Supreme Court hearing by noting that before Nevada's competency court began, criminal defendants languished in jail for months waiting to get a mental health evaluation.

No comment on this one. The Review-Journal might have wanted to ask the PDs if these annoymous competency doctors have done a good job. How can I have a knee jerk reaction to stories like this without more facts?!?

Weekend Roundup

Clark Co. attorney Michael Woodbury was disbarred for failing to notify Nevada Bar that his California legal license had been suspended for charges of harassing a minor (Review-Journal)

Nevada lost another prominent attorney--Jones Vargas founder, Herbert Jones, died at age 93 (Las Vegas Now)

Spring Valley residents object to the pink-colored house occupied by Ticket-Busting law firm Ramsey & Associates (Review-Journal)

The Nevada Supreme Court voted to delay the indigent defense reforms (Review-Journal) and an RJ editorial wonders how the state will pay for reforms.

Class action lawsuit attempts to remedy faulty plumbing in Vegas homes (Las Vegas Sun)

Endoscopy News:
U.S. Senator Ensign jumped into the Endoscopy mess, asking Gov. Gibbons to refrain from removing doctors from the state medical board. (Review-Journal)

Meanwhile, Nevada has completed its inspection of clinics within the state with 7 showing major infection control problems. (Monterey Herald)

And a woman whose husband died of Hep-C after being an Endoscopy patient has filed suit against Dr. "Needles" Desai's clinic. (Kolo 8 News)

Wed Roundup

Review-Journal continues coverage of Noel Gage's mistrial [ahem . . . narrow escape from prison] (Review-Journal)

Gov. Gibbons vows that he will take legal action to remove medical board members (Review-Journal)

Judge Wagner is asking the Nevada Supreme Court to rethink its attempt to provide the poor with decent representation. (Review-Journal) Some critics of the changes suggest Nevada simply cannot afford to give adequate representation to poor defendants. (Nevada Appeal) [this may be the most telling story about the legal community in the state--Judges are literally arguing that the justice system cannot afford due process for the poor, so the Supreme Court shouldn't ask them to]

An editorial praises the role of trial lawyers in Nevada (Review-Journal)

Something or some smell at the Regional Justice Center is making people ill (Las Vegas Sun)

Finally, A Reno jury returned a $590 million judgement against Darren Mack (Nevada Appeal)

Weekend Roundup

A former advisor to Mayor Goodman was arrested in California (Review-Journal)

Bad news for the Endoscopy victims: the clinics may have been underinsured (meaning the total recovery possible may be $3 million for all of the 40,000 potential victims) (Review-Journal)

The Nevada Supreme Court has been asked to continue to allow indigent defendants to have inadequate representation for a little while longer and delay reforms to the Public Defender system (Mercury News)

An editorial calls for Gov. Gibbons to put all the inquiries into Nevada clincis reusing needles together into one investigation (Review-Journal)

The son of a former Clark Co. Commissioner was indicted for filing false personal tax information (Las Vegas Sun) [does corruption run in the family?]

Injured Vegas cab passenger learns that there's an insurance loophole for taxi passengers (Las Vegas Sun)

The Carson City fun continues with nurses being fired for stealing medication (Review-Journal)

Other odd ball Nevada law news (Darren Mack, drunk PD, horse tripping, Heavy Hitter, Scientology tax breaks, mortgage crisis, judicial elections)

Fri wrap-up:

Crazy defendant-of-the-moment, Darren Mack, explained in court that when he almost completely severed his wife's head from her body, it was an act of self-defense (Review-Journal)

Two Clark County Public Defenders were arrested last weekend from the same car. One for suspected drunk driving, the other for obstruction. [They better hope they can afford private counsel. Clark County PDs are overloaded.] (Review-Journal)

Horse tripping is now illegal in Lyon County (Nevada Appeal)

An annonymous editorial calls on the Nevada State Bar to sanction the 4 ft 10" Heavy Hitter for his Super Bowl ad (Review-Journal)

At the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a Jewish couple is attempting to claim a tax break reserved by the IRS for the Church of Scientology (New York Sun; Audio link to argument available at How Appealing)

The financial geniuses who helped create the mortgage crisis while getting rich off the risky deals hit Vegas over the weekend to relax after receiving so much bad publicity (NY Times). At the same time, the median price for a Vegas home dropped below $250k--the lowest price since 2004 (Las Vegas Sun)

Only one of the candidates running to unseat a Supreme Court justice is currently a judge (Las Vegas Sun)

Wed Vegas Roundup (Heavy Hitter, Muni Ct problems, and courthouse elevators)

Been a slow week on the gossip front, but luckily it's still Sin City and always has its fair share of quriky legal stories:

The Nevada Bar Association has received a formal Complaint against the heavy hitting, 4 ft 10" Glen Lerner for his decision to skip the first day his client's murder trial (Las Vegas Review-Journal).

Judges and convicts share elevators at the overburdened Clark Co. District Court (Las Vegas Sun)

New Municipal Court Judges will have the enjoyment of figuring out how to get improvrished defendants an attorney without appointing lawyers or overburdening the county's swamped Public Defenders (Las Vegas Sun)

ACLU and Public Defenders challenge Prosecutor loophole on Juvenile guilty pleas

Nevada's criminal laws are soon to make the national spotlight again. This time, it's how the Courts handle juvenile pleas. The ACLU and Public Defenders from Washoe and Clark county are challenging a procedural loophole for Prosecutors.

Nevada Appeal reports:

National and state groups and individuals are challenging a Nevada law that makes juveniles admit guilt to charged crimes in efforts to avoid trial as an adult - but lets prosecutors use those admissions if juveniles end up in adult court anyway. . .

The legal brief is in support of an appeal filed by two youths, identified only as William and Marques, from the Las Vegas area who were certified as adults in November, at age 17, in robbery cases. They were a year or two younger when the robberies occurred.

"Extorting an admission from juveniles for the purpose of avoiding transfer (to adult court) and then allowing the use of such admissions to support transfer and ultimately guilt at the trial stage is completely at odds with the standard of fundamental fairness required in juvenile proceedings," the brief states.

The article goes on to state:

Another group, the National Juvenile Defender Center, plans a separate document arguing that juveniles in such cases can't get proper legal representation since attorneys must advise juveniles to admit guilt to avoid adult certification.

"That's not how a productive attorney-client relationship usually goes," [according to attorney Lee Rowland of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada].

The ACLU-Juvenile Law Center brief notes that at least 19 other states have laws protecting juveniles against self-incrimination when a judge determines whether they should be tried in juvenile or adult courts.

Nice. So if you're young in Nevada, plead guilty to the crime to avoid the harsh penalty of being tried as an adult. Unless, of course, the judge decides to try you as an adult anyway. Then you're screwed because you already plead guilty. Good, old-fashioned Silver State justice.