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Saturday, October 10, 1998
Candidate for Family Court judge found guilty
A justice of the peace finds James Guesman guilty of battery, but he will be on the ballot Nov. 3.
By Shaun McKinnon
Review-Journal
Family Court judge candidate James Guesman was convicted Friday of domestic battery for slamming his ex-girlfriend into the wall of the home they once shared.
Reno Justice of the Peace John Kadlic, hearing the nonjury misdemeanor trial in Las Vegas, found Guesman guilty and sentenced him to two days in jail and imposed a $315 fine. He also ordered the 54-year-old lawyer to undergo domestic violence counseling and directed him to pay the ex-girlfriend's medical bills.
But Kadlic stayed the sentence pending an appeal that his attorney promised. Because the charge was a misdemeanor, Guesman remains eligible in the race for Family Court judge, Department A. His name will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot alongside incumbent Judge Bill Voy.
Guesman's ex-girlfriend, Collette Putnam, accused him of grabbing her by the neck and slamming her into the wall during a quarrel in May. Guesman said Putnam, in a rage because her car was blocked in the driveway, tripped on a piece of loose carpet and fell on the floor.
After about six hours of testimony from both sides, Kadlic said the facts seemed clear to him.
"After hearing all the evidence, no matter how I look at it, no matter how I weigh it, the only conclusion I can come to is the defendant did what he did on that day and is guilty," Kadlic said.
Putnam testified that she and Guesman had been arguing for three days by the evening of May 5, when the confrontation occurred. She and Guesman had been living together off and on for a little over one year.
Both she and Guesman agreed the fight started at her parents' house; Guesman insisted the dispute was over nothing of significance and embarrassed him.
Putnam said she was home May 5 when Guesman drove up and came inside the home. After the two exchanged words, she tried to leave and found her car blocked by his. She said she asked him to move his car.
"He grabbed me by the head near my chin and started slamming my head against the wall," she testified. "First my shoulders and neck hit, then my head. I asked him to let go of me and he said I needed, I deserved to be knocked out."
She said she believes she blacked out briefly and then came to on the floor of the bedroom. She said Guesman, while leaving, told her "nice fake."
Putnam said she called 911, even though Guesman told her no one would show up to help her. After calling 911 a second time, she agreed with a dispatcher to file a police report the next day and she spent the night at her mother's house.
The assault left Putnam with a lump on the back of her head and, she said, bad headaches and nausea. A chiropractor confirmed the lump, but conceded under cross-examination she had some other pre-existing conditions.
Guesman described an entirely different scene. He said Putnam "went nuclear" when he told her she had improperly loaded a trailer at her parents' house.
"She was screaming at the top of her lungs," Guesman said. He said she continued to scream at him that evening and on several more occasions during the next two days.
"I was embarrassed, disappointed, sad," he said. "The relationship seemed to be deteriorating. I was realizing the relationship had to end. I couldn't live with someone acting like that."
He testified that on the evening of May 5, he was preparing to retrieve the trailer from Putnam's parents' home when Putnam began yelling at him again.
"I told her I couldn't live that way, that we had to end it, that she had to move out," he said.
He said Putnam stormed out of the house, then came back in to demand he move his car. He said she charged into the bedroom and knocked him aside, then spun and fell to the floor.
"She tripped," he said.
The defense called several witnesses who said Putnam wanted to use the incident to ruin Guesman's career and scuttle his chances in the Family Court election.
"She said to me, 'Look, you know Jim's running for judge, you know this will ruin his chances,' " said Patric Durazzo, a Tucson, Ariz., lawyer and friend of Guesman's.
Eric Hansen, a claims adjustor for Allstate Insurance, said Putnam tried to file a claim against Guesman's homeowner's policy for her medical bills and warned, "she would get four attorneys and create a scandal. She said she knew our client was running for office."
Putnam denied making such threats and said she only wanted her medical bills paid.
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