Judicial discipline panel sets meeting in Halverson case

The Judicial Discipline Commission will be meeting in secret Monday morning in Las Vegas for a hearing on embattled District Judge Elizabeth Halverson.

At least a handful of subpoenas have been issued to people, including lawyers and court officials, to discuss the judge's actions since she took the bench in January.

Those who have been subpoenaed are prohibited by law from discussing the meeting.

The commission has the authority to censure, retire, remove, suspend or otherwise discipline Halverson.

Their meetings are conducted in private, with the exception of hearings in which the commission considers imposing suspension with loss of pay or removal from the bench.

Those hearings are public, said David Sarnowski, the commission's executive director and general counsel.

An interim suspension with pay, which court officials have speculated for months is what will happen, does not require a public hearing.

Halverson also filed an emergency petition for a writ of prohibition under seal with the Supreme Court.

Her attorney, Bill Gamage, declined to speak about the petition.

Petitions for a writ of prohibition typically ask the court to step in and prohibit another body, such a commission or counsel, from taking action.

Halverson was barred from the courthouse in May for violating security protocols when she brought in private bodyguards. Nevada Supreme Court justices later returned her to her post until the conclusion of a lawsuit she has pending in their court against district court administrators.

The new judge has also been criticized for her lack of legal acumen.

Halverson broke the law unknowingly when she spoke to two juries in child molestation cases without attorneys present earlier this year.

At least two attorneys involved in the cases in which Halverson spoke to juries have been subpoenaed, the Review-Journal has learned.

Halverson has argued Chief District Judge Kathy Hardcastle overstepped her authority in barring her from the courthouse and in taking away her criminal cases.

Hardcastle said she gave Halverson, who had no trial experience and little criminal law experience coming on the bench, a civil caseload because she needed time to gain experience. Halverson also refused to meet with veteran judges, whom Hardcastle had asked to counsel and advise Halverson.

For her part, Halverson said she stopped meeting with those judges after they berated her. She has said she did not believe they had any authority over her.