2 Las Vegas justices of the peace face discipline panel

A pair of Las Vegas judges faced a Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline panel Monday in a hearing over the hiring and firing of court administrators and what special prosecutors called a threat to the public.

Defense attorneys for the judges said the allegations did not stem from any conduct that occurred in a courtroom. The allegations involve Las Vegas Justices of the Peace Melanie Andress-Tobiasson and Amy Chelini.

Lawyers Bill Terry and Tom Pitaro both referenced their clients’ high ratings from lawyers in a survey conducted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Amy Chelini is an asset,” said Pitaro, who represents Chelini. “Judge Tobiasson is an asset. They’re assets to a court system. They’re assets to this community, and they are the face of this community.”

But prosecutor Brian Hutchins pointed to a “pattern of recurring misconduct” that was “very important to the administration of justice.”

Former Las Vegas Justice Court administrator Kim Kampling, who was fired from her role by Chief Judge Suzan Baucum in March after nearly four years, told the commission that she sensed pressure from Tobiasson and Chelini about whether certain clerks were removed from their courtrooms.

“I felt scared and threatened by all the people she knew,” Kampling said of Tobiasson. “There were ups and downs and she would be very angry at me. I got the impression that she knew all these people, and I should not get involved or go against what she said. That’s how I felt.”

But when Terry, Tobiasson’s attorney, asked about the judge objecting to having a clerk removed from her courtroom, Kampling said Tobiasson “wanted consistency in her courtroom.”

Kampling added that Chelini called her repeatedly about a clerk’s position in her courtroom.

“I feel like I couldn’t do my job, and if I went against their wishes when they told me what they wanted, my job would be at stake,” she said of the judges. “I felt that a lot in 2018 and 2019 … If the administrators couldn’t do their job … then I felt like justice wasn’t being served and defendants weren’t getting due process.”

The first witness in the two-day hearing at the Thomas & Mack Moot Courtroom at UNLV’s Boyd Law School, former court administrator David Denson, testified that Tobiasson and Chelini “blacklisted” certain clerks who could not work in their courtrooms.

Denson, who was fired from his role in July after five years on the job, said he had rare interactions with the judges, and that Tobiasson and Chelini played no role in administrative terminations, including his own.

But he testified that Tobiasson cussed during a meeting and that he overheard Chelini swear in “kind of an inappropriate manner” during a phone call with another administrator.

“It’s really not good when you do it in front of the clerks,” Denson told the panel.

Pitaro later referred to the comments as “street slang.”

Another courthouse worker, Maggie Tucker, filed a complaint with the commission about how clerks were transferred among courtrooms.

During testimony on Monday, she referenced an email Tobiasson sent in August 2018 “that really upset me,” but did not testify about the details of the message, except to say that the judge interfered in “personnel matters.”

Tucker, a supervisor in the criminal division of Las Vegas Justice Court, said she felt “undermined” when she tried to address “bullying” among court clerks.

Asked if she sought, in her complaint, to have the judges removed from the bench, Tucker said: “Never, ever. I didn’t think it would go this far.”

The judges face possible suspension after the state’s discipline commission found they posed “a substantial threat of serious harm to the public or administration of justice.”

In an opening statement, Terry told the seven-member panel: “These two women do not pose a threat to the public or the administration of justice.” He said he planned to call at least five different judges to testify.

Andress-Tobiasson, a former Clark County prosecutor, took the bench in 2009. Chelini, a former criminal defense attorney, was elected in 2016.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find @randompoker on Twitter.