Nevada OKs $200,000 settlement in marshal groping case
CARSON CITY — A state panel has settled two civil rights lawsuits with a Las Vegas woman who alleged a Clark County Family Court marshal groped her in August 2011.
The Board of Examiners on Tuesday approved a $200,000 payment to Monica Contreras as a global settlement of both a federal and separate state lawsuit filed against the court.
Contreras alleged she was pressured to recant her statements, which she did not do.
In a courtroom incident captured on videotape, Contreras complained to Hearing Master Patricia Doninger that Marshal Ron Fox assaulted her in a witness room under the guise of searching her for drugs.
Doninger appeared to ignore Contreras’ pleas, which prompted a marshal to arrest her on misdemeanor charges of providing false information to a police officer and disturbing the peace. She later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. The disturbing-the-peace charge was dismissed.
Fox was fired after an internal investigation, and Doninger was let go amid publicity over the incident.
Fox has denied the accusations and has sued to get his job back. Contreras has sued Fox.
Earlier this year, another marshal, James Kenyon, also lost his job because of the Contreras incident.
Gov. Brian Sandoval, a member of the Board of Examiners, was told the attorneys fees to defend the cases filed against the District Court already total more than $170,000.
It was estimated that taking the federal case to trial would cost an additional $225,000 in defense costs.
The settlement, which requires attorneys on both sides to pay their own costs, comes amid a federal grand jury investigation into allegations of excessive force by Family Court marshals.
Another woman, Crystal Williams, testified before the grand jury in July 2013 that she was choked by another marshal in May 2010 while she was restrained in a holding cell. The marshal, Steve Rushfield, was the supervisor of the Family Court marshals at the time. He has been suspended.
Rushfield, who has been accused of trying to cover up both incidents, is at the center of the federal investigation.
Contact Capital Bureau reporter Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Find him on Twitter: @seanw801.
