EDITORIAL: Judicial Discipline Commission bans Conrad Hafen from the bench

Normally, it’s three strikes and you’re out. In the case of Conrad Hafen, it took four strikes that we’re aware of, but at least he won’t be back at the plate.

The Review-Journal’s David Ferrara reported that Mr. Hafen, a former Las Vegas justice of the peace, will never again serve as a judge in Nevada, according to the state’s Commission on Judicial Discipline. Mr. Hafen also agreed to public censure and admitted that he violated judicial canons, according to the resolution posted online Monday as the result of four complaints filed with the commission.

The disciplinary action stemmed primarily from an incident last May in which Mr. Hafen ordered deputy public defender Zohra Bakhtary handcuffed in court. Mr. Ferrara reported that Ms. Bakhtary was left to sit silently in the courtroom for about three minutes while her client was sent to jail for six months on a larceny charge. The judge’s high-handed action drew criticism from groups of defense attorneys.

But it took that fourth strike to finally root out the judge. Mr. Ferrara noted that in December 2014, Mr. Hafen failed to file an order of contempt against a defendant given 50 days in jail for disruption in the courtroom. A year later, Mr. Hafen failed to file a similar order for a man sent to jail for 10 days while he tried to represent himself at trial, and in April 2016, he sentenced a woman to 25 days after she “started screaming and yelling” at the judge, and he again failed to file a contempt order.

The commission’s strong response was proper. Even better, though, was that voters had already handled the matter when they booted Mr. Hafen from the bench in his re-election bid last June.