Survey results for Clark County Family Court judges run the gamut

Clark County lawyers think two Family Court judges should be removed from office in next year’s elections.

Judges Mary Perry and Michele Mercer are the only two of Family Court’s 26 judges who received a retention score lower than 50 percent in the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s 2025 Judicial Performance Evaluation — meaning less than half of the attorneys who rated them believe they should keep their seats.

All of the judges interviewed for this story said they intend to run in the 2026 election.

The 2025 survey came back with better overall scores for the Family Court judges compared with the past two judicial performance evaluations, commonly known as “Judging the Judges.” In 2013, attorneys wanted five Family Court judges off the bench, and six judges received low retention scores in the 2019 survey.

Perry received the lowest retention score of the current Family Court judges, at 35 percent. The lawyers gave Mercer a retention score of 48 percent.

Neither judge was on the bench during the 2019 survey, the most recent.

‘I know it was bad’

Both Perry and Mercer have faced public censures from the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline.

Perry agreed to a public censure after the commission found that she shouted and took a hostile tone during hearings. In a recent interview with the Review-Journal, Perry said the discipline was justified.

When she started the job, Perry said, she was taking medication related to a breast cancer diagnosis that affected her hormones. The judge said she has since adjusted to the medication and believes she is “doing much better.”

“It was bad, and I know it was bad,” she said. “I’ve tried to apologize to every one of them that it got bad with.”

Some attorneys submitted harsh criticisms of Perry with the survey, with one respondent writing that “this judge epitomizes why elected judges do not work.”

“Judge Perry consistently exhibits a poor judicial temperament and offers wildly inconsistent results from case to case,” another attorney wrote.

Perry said she was surprised by most of the comments, which were submitted anonymously. She defended her consistency in judicial rulings, especially in child custody cases.

“I start at joint physical custody and joint legal custody because the law requires me to,” she said.

Meanwhile, attorneys who left comments for Mercer praised her temperament and dedication to families appearing in her courtroom, but they questioned her legal decisions.

“Very nice but she is a weak judge,” one attorney wrote. “She seems unsure of herself, she has gotten better but I am not sure this is the position for her.”

Mercer said she welcomed the feedback as an opportunity to improve her performance. She said it took her a few years to “get a firm grasp of the job,” but she has worked to streamline her cases. When she needs clarifications, she said she researches the law, sometimes during hearings.

“It’s terrifying making decisions that profoundly impact the people who appear before me,” she said. “That’s very sobering, and so I don’t take that lightly. I spend a tremendous amount of time studying and poring over all of the documents that I get every day.”

In May 2024, Mercer consented to a public reprimand from the Commission on Judicial Discipline for attempting to involve herself in another judge’s case, and for an error in a child support case. Mercer said she did not mean to interject herself into another case but wanted to watch a hearing involving her former client. She also said the child support ruling was from a complex case during the beginning of her time on the bench, when she was “overwhelmed.”

‘Fall from grace’

One judge who has been on the bench since 2009 saw his retention score drop significantly this year. Judge Bill Henderson’s score went down by 22 percentage points to 50.5 percent in the 2025 survey, barely surpassing the benchmark needed for the majority of respondents to recommend retaining him.

“I’ll admit I’m really stunned, and hurt, and crushed by this fall from grace,” Henderson said.

Henderson said he believes the drop in his score was partly because he oversaw the high-profile and contentious custody battle between attorney Dylan Houston and his ex-wife, Ashley Prince. The case made headlines when Houston’s father, Joe, who was also his lawyer, shot and killed Prince and her new husband, attorney Dennis Prince, before turning the gun on himself during a deposition at a Summerlin law office last year.

Some attorneys who submitted comments about Henderson mentioned the case, and criticized Henderson’s overall disposition, with one attorney describing him as “short-tempered.”

“He also has a complete lack of judgement [sic], which is evidenced by his decisions and orders in the tragic Ashley Prince case,” another attorney wrote.

Henderson said he wants to “work very assertively” on adjusting his temperament on the bench. He declined to discuss his specific rulings in the case that ended with the fatal shootings.

“That’s the one that keeps me up at night for a year and a half,” he said. “… What if I had done this instead, or should I have done this instead? It’s constant.”

Highly rated judges

The Family Court judges who received the highest retention scores were Adriana Rincon White, at 98 percent, and Bryce Duckworth, at 97 percent.

Rincon White was appointed to the bench by Gov. Joe Lombardo in February after serving as a hearing master since 2019. She said she tries to approach cases by promoting “civility, dignity and respect.”

“I tell myself not to become part of the problem, and be part of the solution,” she said.

In 2019, Duckworth was the highest-scoring judge in Family Court. His retention score in the 2025 survey rose by five percentage points, to 97 percent.

Duckworth, who has been on the bench for nearly 17 years, also emphasized showing respect for litigants.

“These hearings that we have can be emotionally charged just because of the nature of what we’re dealing with,” he said. “… I try to defuse the emotion; you want to be somewhat of a calming influence and avoid being drawn into the emotion yourself.”

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.