Clark County judges fail to report trips to workshops backed by conservatives

More than a half dozen Clark County judges — including the chief judge — appeared to fail to report sponsored trips to conservative judicial educational programs despite state law requiring annual disclosures of gifts and reimbursements, a Las Vegas Review-Journal investigation found.

The District Court judges failed to report trips over the past 10 years that were sponsored by George Mason University’s Law and Economics Center — a Virginia public university that puts on dozens of annual judicial conferences, meetings and workshops, billed as a way to teach judges economic principles. The workshops are frequently held in high-end hotels across the country and are backed by conservative donors.

The university’s judicial education program has made national headlines before. Last year, NPR reported that dozens of federal judges failed to disclose free travel at luxury resorts for George Mason conferences.

A Review-Journal investigation shows the disclosure problem is not limited to federal judges — there are seven active District Court judges in Clark County who appeared to have gaps in financial disclosure statements reporting their participation in at least one Law and Economics Center event in the past 10 years.

Those judges include Chief Judge Jerry Wiese and judges Susan Johnson, Anna Albertson, Nadia Krall, Mark Denton, Kathleen Delaney and Charles Hoskin. Records show that Albertson, Hoskin and Johnson all appeared to fail to disclose their attendance at an event held during the most recent fiscal year.

George Mason hosts educational events for free “as a public service,” according to an annual report from the university. The school pays for judges’ hotel rooms, class materials and group meals, and offers reimbursements for travel costs. The Review-Journal also found that a Nevada state agency will also reimburse judges who apply for judicial education funds to attend George Mason events.

Judges document participation in these events through annual financial disclosure statements, meant to report extra-judicial income and gifts or reimbursements over $200. Some judges disclosed attendance at George Mason events as a gift, while others documented it as a reimbursement.

Financial disclosure statements are necessary for the public to have confidence in the judicial system, said David Sachar, the director of the Center for Judicial Ethics with the National Center for State Courts.

“The citizens of this country are supposed to have confidence that when they come in front of a fair and neutral magistrate, that they have due process and a fair opportunity to have their grievance heard,” Sachar said. “In order to do so, it’s important to know who our judges might be beholden to.”

Judges who responded to requests for comments said the gaps in their disclosure statements was an unintentional oversight, and they agreed that their reimbursements from George Mason should be public record.

“We should report this,” said Johnson, who noted that the reimbursements are from an “outside source.”

The Law and Economics Center is funded by individual donors, corporations such as Exxon Mobile and Johnson & Johnson, and conservative foundations that include the Federalist Society. In its most recent fiscal year, the Law and Economics Center was funded by more than $9 million in contributions. Included in its 2024 individual donors were retired District Judge Nancy Allf and her husband, political consultant David Thomas, who had advised on numerous judicial campaigns in Clark County.

Allf told the Review-Journal that she is a member of the American College of Business Court judges, which events are run by the Law and Economics Center, and has made an annual contribution to the organization for several years to support the legal education program. She said judges should seek out the best education possible, regardless of political donors.

“In order to form our opinions, we have to listen to all points of view. That’s the point of being a judge,” said Allf, who is now a senior judge and still hears cases.

When asked if attendance at George Mason events should be disclosed, Allf said judges should “comply with the law.”

Records show one gap in Allf’s disclosure statements, which do not include a disclosure of her attending a George Mason event during the school’s 2017 to 2018 fiscal year. Allf said if she made an error in the disclosure, “it was not intentional,” but that an event she attended during that time frame could have been held in Las Vegas, meaning she “may not have needed to report” attending the meeting.

The Review-Journal identified judges who did not disclose their participation in Law and Economics Center events by comparing 10 years of financial disclosure statements with George Mason annual reports.

George Mason did not respond to a request for comment.

State reimbursements

Nevada’s Administrative Office of the Courts may also reimburse judges who attend educational workshops, including Law and Economics Center events, according to a statement from Katherine Stocks, the office’s director. But state law does not require judges to report reimbursements that come from the administrative office, Stocks said.

Two judges — Joanna Kishner and Amy Mastin — have requested reimbursements from the state office for attending George Mason events, Stocks said. Kishner requested a reimbursement to attend events in 2024 and 2025, and Mastin requested a reimbursement last year.

Stocks said judges and attorneys are required to complete 13 hours of continuing legal education annually. They can be reimbursed for costs associated with classes even if the course is not accredited with the Nevada State Bar, which the George Mason program is not.

Records show that several judges with gaps in their financial disclosure statements documented attending George Mason events in other years. Meanwhile, some judges documented attending other conferences and workshops but failed to disclose the George Mason events.

Johnson, who was elected to Department 22 in 2006, participated in a George Mason event during the school’s 2023-2024 fiscal year, but it was not documented on her financial disclosure form. She told the Review-Journal that she planned to amend any mistakes in the form.

Albertson, who was elected to Department 11 in 2022, also attended a George Mason event in the last fiscal year.

She failed to disclose her attendance at the event until she was contacted by the Review-Journal. She has since filed amended financial disclosure statements documenting that she received $862 in reimbursements for lodging and meals, plus $618 in airfare reimbursements from the university.

“It wasn’t an intentional exclusion,” Albertson said.

Amended statements

Krall, who was elected to Department 4 in 2020, likewise filed an amended disclosure after the Review-Journal began asking questions. She documented that George Mason reimbursed her for more than $1,800 in travel, lodging and meal costs to attend an event in 2021.

Other judges had not filed an amended disclosure as of Thursday.

Records show that Wiese, who was elected in 2010 and is the current chief judge, is listed as a participant at a George Mason event during the 2021-2022 fiscal year, which he did not disclose.

Hoskin, Denton and Delaney’s financial disclosure statements did not match two years of George Mason’s annual reports.

Three of Delaney’s financial disclosure forms from the past 10 years are entirely missing from an online database. The Administrative Office of the Courts said that after a “thorough search” of its database, no records of the disclosures could be located.

Delaney, Wiese, Krall and Hoskin did not directly respond to requests for comment.

Denton’s financial disclosure statements did not report that he attended events during George Mason’s 2015-2016 and 2020-2021 fiscal years, although he is listed as a participant in the university’s annual reports during those time frames.

He did disclose attending an American Bar Association event in late 2015 as a representative of the American College of Business Court Judges and receiving a reimbursement from the bar association. During the university’s 2020-2021 fiscal year, Denton said he planned to attend an event in Savannah, Georgia, but dropped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Denton has served as the president of the American College of Business Court Judges, ending his term in 2024. His financial disclosure statements show he has reported attending numerous George Mason events in the past 10 years. He said he believes judges should report attendance at George Mason events if they receive monetary reimbursements.

“I’ve always been very careful in filling out my disclosures,” Denton told the Review-Journal on Friday. “…As far as I know, I have disclosed everything I’ve attended.”

Denton said he found George Mason educational events to be politically neutral, despite its donors.

“I don’t mind at all getting a perspective from an organization that may have a different view of things than I have,” he said.

After reaching out to judges to request comment, District Court spokeswoman Mary Ann Price sent an emailed statement to the Review-Journal. The statement said that George Mason educational events “involved intensive classroom lectures and discussions on economics, finance, statistics, etc.,” and that the judges attended the programs to “advance professional expertise.”

“It appears that several of our judges who attended the training may not have seen the reimbursement as a ‘gift,’ and consequently, it may not have been reported on their financial disclosure forms,” the statement read. “We appreciate the matter being brought to our attention.”

Price said that the statement was authorized by Wiese, but said all of the judges who received a request for comment were notified of the statement.

Enforcement of disclosure statements falls to the Judicial Disciplinary Commission. But there is no agency that audits the disclosures for accuracy, and the commission will only review a disclosure statement if it receives a complaint or information from a third party.

At the federal level, judges are required to report their participation in privately funded seminars. But Nevada does not have an equivalent process, so financial disclosure statements are the only way for the public to know what conferences and workshops are attended by judges and how much money they receive for these programs.

Sachar said every state has a way for judges to report reimbursements and gifts. Mistakes are usually not intentional, but states can make a point to periodically train judges to ensure they are making the proper disclosures, Sachar said.

“Obviously, I think the best practice is to make it as transparent as possible,” he said.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Newberg is a member of the Review-Journal’s investigative team, focusing on reporting that holds leaders and agencies accountable and exposes wrongdoing.