Judge finds Las Vegas lawyer behind strange lawsuit competent

A Las Vegas attorney accused of smashing the windows of a man’s vintage Cadillac is competent to stand trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The same attorney, Ty Maynarich, also filed a strange lawsuit against his former boss, and faced a separate judge a day earlier for a hearing about that case.

District Judge Christy Craig’s ruling Wednesday means Ty Maynarich’s criminal case can move forward, even though doctors disagreed about his competency.

Craig said two doctors found Maynarich competent, and one thought he was incompetent.

Maynarich attracted attention from local lawyers and the State Bar of Nevada after he sued longtime attorney John Cotton, his former boss, on June 27 and alleged Cotton may have been involved in a civil conspiracy to tamper with store-bought chicken in Maynarich’s refrigerator, among other claims.

“I would settle for a trial by combat but that is also now illegal and I cannot beat up an old man because I respect the elderly,” Maynarich wrote.

Cotton has denied the allegations in the suit. Daniel Hooge, the state bar counsel, has said the bar planned to ask that Maynarich be subject to a competency hearing. Hooge did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

When his criminal case was called, Maynarich, who wore a suit and carried a leather satchel, approached the judge and gave her his state bar number.

Craig seemed to initially think he was representing a client.

“Why didn’t you check in?” she asked. “I would have called it.”

He said he had checked in and provided his name again.

“So you’re the defendant,” the judge said.

Maynarich proceeded to tell her that he wanted to fire the public defender’s office.

Public defenders did not challenge the competency finding.

The criminal case will now return to Las Vegas Justice Court, where Maynarich faces a felony charge of injuring or tampering with a vehicle. A Metropolitan Police Department report stated that on Feb. 10, witnesses said Maynarich approached a 1960 Cadillac DeVille and used a flashlight to break all of the windows, headlights and taillights.

In a separate hearing Tuesday, District Judge Joanna Kishner struck multiple documents in Maynarich’s lawsuit because of a procedural issue. Maynarich had filed amended complaints in late July.

Kishner said Maynarich had exhausted his right to file amended complaints without court permission and struck two of the amended complaints.

Maynarich asked for clarification after Kishner explained her reasoning early in the hearing.

“I don’t understand what you just said,” he told the judge. “I mean, I understand where you’re coming from, but so are you telling me that the first complaint that was filed is the operative complaint, is that your position?”

Kishner explained the issue of the repeated complaints again.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.