Clark County Clerk Shirley Parraguirre stands amid court files Friday at the Regional Justice Center. The county's district judges are forcing Parraguirre to give up her role as court clerk, and Parraguirre fears the change could jeopardize the integrity of court records. Photo by John Gurzinski. Washoe County Clerk Amy Harvey talks in her Reno office Thursday. Harvey has fought unsuccessfully to regain control of the District Court clerk duties after a state Supreme Court decision in 2001. Photo by Cathleen Allison/Special to the Review-Journal.

Allowing Clark County's district judges to take over the court clerk's duties is like letting the fox guard the henhouse, critics of the plan say.

"I haven't talked with any attorney who thought it was a good idea," Las Vegas lawyer Robert Langford said last week. "The consensus is always: We need an independent entity in the courtroom to protect the record."

Pushed by Chief District Judge Kathy Hardcastle, the plan to take control of the court clerk's job has received support from 27 of the 33 district judges. It also has the blessing of the Nevada Supreme Court.

Hardcastle called the move a good business decision, but Clark County Clerk Shirley Parraguirre has argued that an independent court clerk is needed to maintain the integrity of court records.

Parraguirre said she has refused more than once to allow a judge to alter the court minutes in a case. Clerks prepare the minutes to summarize what took place in court.

Parraguirre said she also has intervened on at least two occasions to protect court files from judges, once when she discovered that a judge was keeping the court file from his own child-custody case in his chambers and again when she feared a judge was planning to order the destruction of court records in a divorce case.

Her position is supported by Washoe County Clerk Amy Harvey.

"The checks and balances don't work like this," Harvey said. "You have the record maker keeping the record, and that's wrong."

But Harvey has fought this battle before and lost.

Washoe County's district judges assumed control of their court clerk's office in 1974.

After her election in 1998, the same year Parraguirre was elected, Harvey went to the state's high court and urged the justices to oust Washoe County District Court from the court clerk position.

Harvey asserted that the Nevada Constitution designates the county clerk as the sole person responsible for performing the duties associated with the court clerk. Parraguirre submitted a friend-of-the-court brief on her behalf.

In a 5-2 opinion issued in 2001, the state Supreme Court denied Harvey's request, finding that the county clerk is "an arm of the court" when acting as court clerk and can be supervised by the judicial system.

Harvey said she still feels passionate about the issue and feels sorry for Parraguirre, who soon will lose most of her responsibilities.

"In some respects, if I hadn't brought the suit, they wouldn't be able to do this to Shirley," Harvey said.

In an order issued this month, the Nevada Supreme Court granted Clark County District Court's request to assume responsibility for performing the duties of the court clerk and ordered the District Court to proceed in accordance with the Harvey decision. The change is expected to take place by Jan. 16.

Harvey said her attorney advised her that she had no legal basis for an appeal of the ruling in her case.

"If I could find a way to take it to the Supreme Court of the United States, believe me, I'd be there," she said.

District Judge Valorie Vega, who voted in favor of taking over the court clerk's duties in Clark County, said most courtrooms now have an audiovisual system that records court proceedings.

"That system can't be rewound, erased or tampered with," she said. "It goes into the computer."

Other courtrooms use certified stenographic reporters who create verbatim transcripts of proceedings. They would risk losing their licenses if they deliberately created a false court record, Vega said.

Altering court minutes would not change what exists in the computer or on the transcript, the judge said, "because you can't redo what was done in court."

Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said the Nevada Supreme Court does not accept video recordings as official court records. The videotapes must be transcribed before they can be submitted to the high court, he said.

Hardcastle, who announced her plan in April, described the proposed change in control as "basically a business decision." She equated the current system to "having your secretary work for someone else."

"That's exactly right," Langford said in response to Hardcastle's statement. "They want to make sure that the secretary works for them."

The attorney said he would expect his secretary to protect him, but protecting judges should not be the job of a court clerk.

Hardcastle said another reason judges want to control the court clerk's office is to ensure that the person who runs the office meets minimum qualifications.

Langford called that a "straw-man argument."

"There's no minimum qualifications to be sheriff," the lawyer said. "Anybody can run for sheriff. We tend to think that's a pretty good idea."

Parraguirre said she was offered the chance to run the court clerk's office under the new system but declined, even though she believed the offer would have given her a significant salary increase.

"That's how strongly I feel about it," Parraguirre said.

Parraguirre, who was recently re-elected to a third term, will continue to draw her $91,000 annual salary for the next four years with only a fraction of the responsibility. She will keep 65 of the 270 deputy clerks she now oversees, and she will continue to oversee noncourt functions such as the issuance of marriage licenses and the processing of passports.

Having a group of judges assume control of the court clerk's office will not be good for the court, the bar or the public, Parraguirre insisted.

"There will be no consistency in how things are done," she said.

District Judge Stewart Bell, former district attorney for Clark County, was among the few judges who opposed the change.

"I think the clerk does a good job, and I don't see any advantage in doing it," he said, adding that he will support the transition now that his colleagues have voted for it.

Court Executive Officer Chuck Short, who is interviewing candidates for the court clerk position, said many states have a court clerk who works under the supervision of a chief judge. This is "the direction of the future for this nation's state courts," Short said.

Clark and Washoe are the only counties in Nevada that have adopted the new system. In the other 15 counties, an elected county clerk doubles as court clerk, maintaining control of all court records.