From damsels to polygamists
October 14, 2007 - 9:00 pm
It can't be easy for trial lawyers.
Take Las Vegas defense attorney extraordinaire Richard Wright, for example. Just a few weeks ago he stood in a St. George, Utah, courtroom helping defend Warren Jeffs.
You remember Jeffs. He's the wing nut who claims to religiously rule polygamists around these parts. A prophet, says he, with the divine right to order girls, as soon as they have their period, to marry and bear children. In this case, he "arranged" for a 14-year-old to marry her 19-year-old cousin.
Before proceeding, let me interject my biases about polygamy. As a happily married man of 36 years, I say anyone who wants more than one spouse at a time ought to have their head examined -- and I'm speaking for my wife (the true voice of God) when I say that.
Now back to the story.
The girl objected. Jeffs said the marriage was a "revelation from God." The girl objected still. Jeffs insisted and the marriage took place. She then refused to have sex with her cousin husband. Jeffs, as her prophet, told the girl to bodily give herself to her husband. Eventually, the adults won and the child lost.
Jeffs' legal team argued the case amounted to "religious prosecution."
The jury saw it differently, as level-headed Americans would (she's a 14-year-old for goodness sakes) and Jeffs was convicted of being an accomplice to rape.
Now flash back one year ago to another high-profile case. Richard Wright this time stands with Chrissy Mazzeo, a 32-year-old woman who said she was groped in a parking garage by Jim Gibbons, then a Republican congressman running for governor of Nevada.
After an evening of drinking with Gibbons, Mazzeo said she was accosted as they walked to her truck. She said the video camera in the parking garage would prove it. It did not. No charges were filed.
I guess this switchback road is a familiar one for trial attorneys. One day it's standing up for alleged damsels in distress. The next day it's prophets ordering 14-year-olds into the sack with their cousins.
Perhaps there are bigger issues at stake in the Jeffs case that escape me. But I'll bet I'm not the only Las Vegan who can't neatly unpack and pack the incongruity of those two situations.
Is it just a job? Can the thrill of the legal argument be more important than the overall big picture of right and wrong?
Don't get me wrong, I don't judge the Jeffs defense team for taking the case. I get the idea that everyone deserves a good lawyer.
I simply wonder how they do it. I don't think I could. Heck, I feel bad when I equivocate in little stuff.
For example, when I see my dental hygienist, she always asks if I've been flossing regularly. I tell her "pretty much." She only needs to take one look at my teeth to see that what I really should have said is "pretty much never." At the end of the appointment, the hygienist asks me to floss regularly, and I always say "I will." But I won't.
When trial lawyers argue cases so diametrically opposed, I wonder whether they exit the courtroom with second thoughts. Or is it no more an event of the conscience than, say, it is for me when I exit the dentist's office?
It can't be that easy. Can it?
Harrah's remodeling
The controversy over the remodeling of high-rise Harrah's structures without proper government inspections is an important story. All of the brass at Harrah's I personally know would never, ever, consciously do anything to jeopardize the safety of customers. Nevertheless, something's amiss with the process, and it should not have taken a whistle-blower and the Review-Journal to bring it to the surface.
If it is just paperwork, then fix it. If it is more than that, then fix it, even if it means shutting down whole structures. And for all of the unindicted Clark County commissioners -- new and old -- this is on your watch. It is serious and you had better wake up, fix it and make sure something like this never happens again.
Jeez, how many examples of bad county leadership must we endure? Bribery convictions, airport land giveaways, University Medical Center mismanagement. And now this, which, if uncorrected, may be the worst of all.
Tax increases
It was good to see the populists drop their ill-conceived idea of an initiative petition to cap Nevada property taxes a la California's Proposition 13. But there is apparently no end to bad tax ideas. Now comes the teachers union with a proposal to jack gaming taxes, with all of the dollars earmarked to -- who else? -- themselves.
State legislators, listen up: You need to go into the 2009 session with the mind-set of imposing institutional reform and budget cuts. Tax increases -- especially targeted, punitive tax hikes like the one the teachers union wants -- will only make things worse, not better.
Caucus creativity
At least one presidential candidate is paying attention to rural Nevada.
From The Ely Times comes this report: "The Barack Obama for President campaign will host a 'Mock Caucus Potluck-us' this coming Saturday." I give 'em one point for thinking of Ely and another point for creativity. Nice.
Sherman Frederick is publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and president of Stephens Media. Readers may write him at sfrederick@reviewjournal.com.
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