CARSON CITY -- The wheels of justice can turn slowly in Nevada, when the accused is a judge. The state Judicial Discipline Commission sometimes takes years to resolve complaints filed against Nevada judges.
One judge remains accused of sexually harassing a woman -- two years ago. Another has failed to complete community service for traffic violations and other misconduct dating to 1998, and a third was censured for campaign violations three years after they occurred.
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Such delays are fueling an effort to speed the discipline process by the commission. Established in 1976, the seven-member Judicial Discipline Commission investigates allegations of misconduct or disability and has the power to remove or censure judges, order fines, apologies, training or counseling.
Those who want to see faster action range from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada to the judges themselves, and the leading argument is that everyone is entitled to speedy justice, from those who file complaints to the judge named in the complaint.
A proposal to require that investigations into complaints about judges be limited to six months died in the state Senate in 2005 because of cost concerns. It had been included in a bill sought by the Nevada Judges Association.
"You can rest assured that if the Judicial Discipline Commission doesn't bring this back in 2007, we will," said Carson City Justice of the Peace Robey Willis, co-chairman of the association's legislative committee and a past president of the group.
"A lot of our members are pretty adamant about having a timeline on the investigations," said Willis, who also serves on the state discipline panel.
"To us, that's pretty important."
Willis said that long delays in some cases before the Judicial Discipline Commission prompted the 2005 effort. The key concerns were that people who file complaints should see them resolved and that judges shouldn't have to operate under a cloud for extended periods, he said.
Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, describes the delays in some commission cases as "just another way in which the entire system of judicial discipline is very badly broken in this state."
