Las Vegas defense lawyer charged with falsifying client’s plea agreements

Defense lawyer Stephen Stubbs has been charged with submitting fraudulent guilty plea agreements in two local courts.

Stubbs, who has tangled with police in recent years on behalf of valley motorcycle clubs, faces two felony counts of offering a false instrument for filing or record and two gross misdemeanor counts of unlawful notarization of signature by a notary public.

The charges stem from two driving- under-the-influence cases — one in Las Vegas Municipal Court and the other in Las Vegas Justice Court — against one of his clients, James L. Green. Green has told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the signature on the plea agreement filed in Justice Court was not his.

Stubbs has been summoned to appear for a March 16 arraignment on the charges before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Conrad Hafen. He denied the allegations Friday and repeated previous accusations that police are mounting a vendetta against him because of his string of legal battles with them.

“I have confidence in the justice system,” he said. “I can tell you I didn’t do what they say I did. That’s for sure.”

Stubbs, a notary, is alleged to have unlawfully notarized the two “written entry of plea” agreements with a signature of his client before filing them. Written guilty pleas are usually filed in court in the absence of a defendant if the defendant lives out-of-state or is too ill to make a court appearance.

According to a criminal complaint filed late Thursday, Stubbs filed one of the false agreements before Las Vegas Municipal Judge Martin Hastings on Aug. 29, 2013. The other was filed before Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure on Sept. 30, 2013, according to the complaint.

Green’s lawyer, Louis Schneider, said Friday he plans to file motions to set aside both of Green’s convictions.

“My client has no idea how these guilty pleas got entered,” Schneider said.

The Justice Court case stems from Green’s October 2012 arrest on charges of driving under the influence of the prescription painkiller hydrocodone. The 46-year-old, who has operated heavy machinery for an asphalt company, is cooperating with police in the Stubbs investigation.

Green said he spent time in the Clark County Detention Center after he was arrested last year for not fulfilling the terms of the plea agreement he maintains he never signed.

Police interviewed him about the fraudulent forms while he was behind bars, he said.

The investigation became public after detectives with the Criminal Intelligence Section of the Metropolitan Police Department raided the attorney’s Las Vegas and Boulder City offices on Oct. 29.

Detectives sought Stubbs’ notary journals and all documents associated with Green, including a retainer agreement between Stubbs and Green, according search warrant records obtained by the Review-Journal.

At Stubbs’ 626 S. Third St. office detectives seized billing records for Green, a copy of a written plea and email correspondence, search warrant returns show.

Detectives confiscated a notary record book belonging to Stubbs from his Boulder City office, the returns show.

Stubbs has had several encounters with police in recent months.

In one case, he said, he faces trial in Justice Court on a charge of obstructing a public officer. The misdemeanor stems from a November 2013 confrontation between Stubbs and police over his refusal to leave his client’s side during an interrogation of the client outside a business.

Stubbs attracted media attention in 2012 when he filed a civil rights lawsuit, alleging Southern Nevada law enforcement agencies were systematically harassing motorcycle clubs.

Stubbs, who represented an association of 37 biker clubs, detailed six encounters with authorities between June 2010 and September 2011 that he alleged violated the constitutional rights of his clients.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter.