Our Sunday Morning Analysis Series Continues:

An overview of local judicial races

Now that we know who our judicial candidates are in Clark County, we can begin to assess them and their races.  Know in advance that I don’t like Judge Steven Jones and he will not receive this column’s support. He has brought disrepute to the profession without credible peer sanction for his misconducts.

What surprises me about him is that of 65 or so of you running, those who chose to challenge him waited until the last minute! He’s got to go, yet some of you chose far more crowded fields rather than challenge your peer who has lost the public’s confidence, and that puzzles me and my readers.

I have a softer spot for those judges in Family Court; I don’t know how you people deal with such levels of human misery and emotion every day in your courtrooms; yet your brothers and sister in black robes at the RJC, look down on you all like you are somehow ‘less than judges’. I worked on a long-term project some years ago for the late Shirley Parraguirre who I loved and thought a great public servant, at Family Court and saw first-hand the dysfunction within our families and the human wreckage that are the lives of so many people here.

Trust that the public sees everyone as judges irrespective of the kind of cases you handle.

I’m conflicted; Judge Sciscento is one of the best people I know here and has represented me, so I had to pull a 10000+ word series about our corrupted judges and courtrooms when he was appointed because it wouldn’t be ethical to sing his praises while slamming those who deserve slamming on our benches across the county.

In two years of observing all but four courtrooms in the county for the now canceled series, I feel sorry for the genuinely stupid people here who are defendants in system gamed to take advantage of them and who don’t know the system’s bullshit.

Over 700 cases observed, and I’ve heard ‘case dismissed’ in pretrial motions just twice and you’re always guilty on traffic related matters everywhere in Clark County no matter what; that’s how they raise money and that money goes into general funds which makes ‘justice’ a for-profit venture for the county, cities, and townships, doesn’t it?

I appreciate the many lawyers, prosecutors, and judges who have candidly answered my questions because even I have trouble understanding how some things work—or aren’t working—here, and if I’m having trouble, my ‘regular people’ readers are too!

Which brings me back to the love of law.

I especially think that if you want to become a judge, that you have to love law; I mean really love it. Do you remember the moment you decided you wanted to be a lawyer?  What the trigger was?  Was it youthful ideology; some higher calling? Some distorted view of what the profession was really all about?  Remember how damned excited you were the day you learned you were accepted into law school; how proud your family was of you?

I am absolutely confident too that you all saw the original Paper Chase and the subsequent series on PBS; that you watched shows like LA Law and Law and Order and got a distorted view of things about a profession that isn’t anywhere near as glamorous as it is on TV; and I’m pretty sure some of you are still addicted to Matlock reruns!

I’m also sure that you all wish that your professional duties were as neat and tidy as a one hour entertainment program on television.

How most of you put up with the monotony of wills and probate, traffic tickets and DUI’s, is a mystery to me, but a necessary function for general societal order; without your efforts, a free and open society would deteriorate into anarchy.

But here in Clark County, we have a major systemic breakdown and operational dysfunction that must be addressed, because especially on the criminal side of your efforts, so many of you and your colleagues have simply forgotten what it’s all about:

The simplicity and beauty of our Bill of Rights!

For years, I have advocated that there be mandatory Civics lessons from the moment of conception until death, largely because the overwhelming majority of those you represent or who are before your benches, have no idea how the system is supposed to work; much less that they truly are innocent until proven guilty.

They are so ignorant that not only do they not know, but they don’t care to know either! This is American, not China or the old Soviet Union; yet I’ve talked to hundreds of people at the RJC, NLV, and COH courts and almost universally, they’re afraid of our courts; some terrified about a $190 jaywalking ticket!

No one ever asks why we are the only jurisdiction in the United States enforcing jaywalking statutes either.

Taking advantage of these ill-informed people can’t be a very satisfying ‘get’, or ‘win’ or ‘score’, can it?  Is it about those ‘wins’ for you, or is it about real justice and those ‘Big Ten’ Amendments?

Know that I don’t believe that your Chief Judges manage you well at all or demand performance standards, much less Constitutional conformity from you; but I will share over the next months some of my observations to help you be better judges.

I can’t believe you don’t have your own internal committees to resolve such enormous dysfunction in the courts you all control!  The general public has little confidence in the entirety and the integrity of our court system here and you all share that burden and the responsibility to repair the courts’ poor public perception beginning with your own conduct.

It’s appalling to civilians before you how few judges in this county even begin their dockets on time, or demand professional protocols from both prosecutors and defense attorneys. Most days, the conduct in courtrooms here is more single’s bar, than courtroom, and I’ve seen more time being wasted and more fartin’ around in the majority of courtrooms here than I have seen in any other part of the country.

Yet another reason dockets are so backlogged?  I’m all for professional comity, but come on, you’ve all seen what goes on all over the county!

You judges who do complex contractual and business law and such have an ally in me, but I write this blog so that ‘regular people’ may understand what’s really going on and you folks don’t deal much with regular people on your end of the business.

My questions to all of the candidates will be ‘Do you love law?’ ‘Will you uphold the Bill of Rights at all times?’ ‘Will you dismiss when you know you’re looking at a hot mess that doesn’t conform to those rights?’  ‘Will you fairly and impartially dispense justice?’

‘Will you remember your own humanity and that of those before you, and how your role within the system is paramount to a free society?’

‘Will you remember why you went to law school in the first place and how excited you were the day you received your letter of acceptance?’

Will you bring that to your bench and always, without fail, keep that in mind in every single case before you? ‘Will you forgo the intense cynicism that is so pervasive within your profession and amongst your colleagues here?’ ‘Will you contain ego and arrogance from everyone in your courtrooms including yourselves?’

I’m truly hoping that you will and I’m cheerleading you to professionally recommit yourselves to those ends not only in your respective campaigns’, but every single day that you sit on the bench!

Mike Zahara
02212010
www.WatchdogWag.com