Group wants Vegas judge sanctioned for handcuffing lawyer

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A defense attorneys’ group wants a judicial oversight panel to discipline a Las Vegas judge for ordering a public defender handcuffed in court last month when she wouldn’t stop arguing to keep a client out of jail.

Nevada Attorneys for Criminal Justice accuses Justice of the Peace Conrad Hafen of violating judicial rules of conduct and of demeaning and humiliating attorney Zohra Bakhtary during the May 23 encounter.

It also cites two other cases since December in which Hafen declared people appearing before him in misdemeanor contempt.

“Appropriate sanctions are required,” the organization said in its May 27 complaint to the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline. “Punishing a public defender for simply doing what is required of her demonstrates a callous disregard for the defense function, the dignity of defense counsel and the integrity of the criminal justice system.”

Paul Deyhle, commission executive, confirmed receipt of the complaint, but said he couldn’t comment about it. He said it could take several months to investigate and report to the commission, which meets quarterly.

Hafen, a former prosecutor in the Nevada state attorney general’s office, was elected to the bench in 2010. He is up for re-election this year. Justices of the peace in Nevada hear misdemeanor cases and hold preliminary hearings to determine if there is enough evidence to move felony cases to state courts for trial.

Neither the judge nor attorney Lance Hendron, president of the 150-member attorneys’ group, responded last week to messages from The Associated Press.

Bakhtary referred questions to her attorney, Dominic Gentile, who said he intends “to set the record straight and to show that Zohra should not have been held in contempt.”

“I’m not out to get a judge,” said Gentile, a prominent Nevada criminal defense and constitutional lawyer and adjunct law school professor. He said he wasn’t a party to the commission complaint.

“The complaint is more than Zohra,” Gentile said. “It’s not in the best interest of Zohra or our firm to become part of the larger picture.”

A public hearing about the conduct of a sitting judge is rare in Nevada. Commission action can range from dismissal of charges to a public reprimand to banishment. Proceedings can take years. In March, the commission prohibited a former Las Vegas-area family court judge already convicted and imprisoned in a federal fraud case from ever returning to the bench.

Hafen has said he ordered Bakhtary taken into custody to teach her a lesson about courtroom decorum and etiquette.

Bakhtary said at the time that she was trying to get the judge to consider her argument before jailing her client.

A court transcript showed Bakhtary kept talking and the judge warned her several times that she faced being held in contempt for interrupting while he tried to rule in her client’s probation violation case.

With Bakhtary handcuffed and sitting with defendants in the courtroom, the man was sentenced to six months in jail. Hafen then ordered Bakhtary released from custody and told her to resume the court calendar.

“I think she’s learned a lesson,” the judge said.

The attorneys’ complaint notes that Hafen denied Bakhtary’s request after she was freed to summon her supervisor to the courtroom.

In December, Hafen ordered a man representing himself in a casino trespassing case taken into custody when he tried to invoke a 14th Amendment guarantee of due-process rights while questioning a witness, according to a transcript of that case. The man was released later that day.

In April, the judge ordered a woman who had been arrested on a bench warrant and held as a material witness jailed after an unspecified outburst in the courtroom. The woman was released two weeks later, when the defendant in the original case waived a preliminary hearing.

The commission complaint concerning Hafen is separate from a May 25 public protest signed by 12 board members of the 105-member Clark County Defenders Union.

It called handcuffing a public defender in Nevada unreasonable, unprecedented and improper.

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Group wants Vegas judge sanctioned for handcuffing lawyer

Attorney calls for sanctions against Passaic County Superior Court judge

An attorney for a state judicial ethics committee on Wednesday called for sanctions against Passaic County Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Portelli, saying the judge made insulting and sexual remarks to attorneys and witnesses who regularly appeared in his courtroom.

An emotional Portelli and his attorney, meanwhile, asked the committee to dismiss the ethics charges against the judge, arguing that the accusations do not withstand the truth test.

The arguments were made at a formal hearing in Lawrenceville before the state’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, which filed a disciplinary complaint against Portelli last September.

The hearing was to determine whether Portelli engaged in wrongdoing. If the committee reaches that finding, it will recommend to the state Supreme Court to impose penalties, which range from reprimand to removal from the bench.

“Judge Portelli is here today remorseful and apologetic,” his attorney, Ralph Lamparello said. “He may not be a perfect judge, but the fact of the matter is, he is a very good judge with a terrific record.”

The hearing Wednesday was briefly interrupted at one point when Portelli burst into tears and stepped outside covering his face with tissue, accompanied by his wife and his attorney. The committee members stopped the hearing for a few minutes until Portelli collected himself and returned to the hearing room. Portelli later testified before the committee and repeatedly broke into tears again.

Portelli also said during the hearing that the ethics complaint against him might be related to his ruling in the case of two Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission officials. The officials, Anthony Ardis and Paul Bazela, were prosecuted by the state Attorney General’s Office and were convicted in a trial of using employees to make repairs at their homes while they were on commission time.

But defense attorneys requested a new trial, arguing that Ardis and Bazela should have been tried separately. Portelli agreed and issued a decision in August 2014 granting a new trial to Ardis and Bazela.

“I knew they were very upset with my decision,” Portelli said Wednesday of the state Attorney General’s Office. “Their complaint to the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct was made a month and a half after my decision. Maybe it’s coincidence.”

Portelli is accused of three counts in the complaint. The complaint also accuses the judge of making comments that he felt child guardianship cases were “long and boring.”

Maureen Bauman, disciplinary counsel for the committee, said the judge’s conduct was worthy of penalties and called several witnesses to support the allegations.

In one count, two attorneys with the state Attorney General’s Office, which represents the state in child guardianship and parental termination cases, testified that Portelli invited them to his chambers and complimented one of them by saying that she does a good job. The judge also used a vulgar term to describe how that attorney, Patricia O’Dowd, deals with her opposing counsels.

O’Dowd’s supervisor, Peter Alvino, testified at the hearing that he was shocked by the judge’s remarks.

“That was clearly out of bounds,” Alvino said.

O’Dowd also testified that she felt the comment was inappropriate.

Lamparello, Portelli’s attorney, said that Portelli had earlier admonished O’Dowd for grimacing and shaking her head while the judge was making a ruling. The judge later invited O’Dowd and her supervisor into his chambers and complimented O’Dowd because he felt bad about admonishing her earlier in front of her supervisor.

“He was trying to diffuse the situation,” Lamparello said.

Lamparello also said that Portelli’s exact words were that O’Dowd “really sticks it to her adversaries when she has to.”

Both Alvino and O’Dowd testified that the complaint against Portelli had nothing to do with his involvement in the case of Ardis and Bazela.

In another count, Jessica Checo, an adoption worker, testified that Portelli complimented her looks and her nails while she was on the stand. But Lamparello pointed out during cross-examination that Checo was not sure if Portelli complimented her during her testimony or in an informal setting during ordinary exchange of pleasantries.

Lamparello also pointed out that Checo was not consistent in her account of how Portelli complimented her. Checo said at the hearing Wednesday that Portelli wrote his compliments on a legal pad and held it up for her to see, but Lamparello said Checo had said in an earlier statement that the judge had used a Post-It.

Portelli testified that he verbally complimented Checo about her looks and her manicure and denied that he wrote anything on a pad or a Post-It. He said he did not say it in a sexual manner but admitted that in hindsight, he believed his comments were still inappropriate.

In testimony regarding a third count, Kathryn Kolodziej, a deputy attorney general who frequently appeared in Portelli’s courtroom, said the judge told to her, “No you cannot sit on my lap.” But she added that the comment was never made in a sexual manner.

“I never thought that that was the judge’s intention,” she said. “He said it in a casual, lighthearted, jokey kind of way, just to lighten the mood. I didn’t think twice about it.”

Portelli denied that his remarks were sexual.

“I certainly meant nothing sexually implicit,” he said. “I admit it, I should not have said that. It was just a stupid remark.”

Lamparello submitted 61 letters from attorneys and former prosecutors that were written in support of Portelli’s character. He also called as a witness one attorney who appeared regularly before Portelli and described him as “the Mary Poppins of [Children in Courts] because he was firm and fair and that children liked him.”  (Continue Reading)

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Attorney calls for sanctions against Passaic County Superior Court judge

Surveillance video has some attorneys questioning judge's fairness

MARIETTA, Ga. (WXIA) -- A Cobb County surveillance video has some defense attorneys questioning whether their client can get a fair trial in one judge’s courtroom.

The video, obtained through an open records request, appears to show Judge Reuben Green and two assistant district attorneys talking about at least four cases without the defendant or their attorneys’ present.

“They were actually talking about some of the facts of the case. They were talking trial strategy,” said Attorney Ashleigh Merchant who has already filed for a new trial and for Judge Green to remove himself from the case.

Merchant says she believes one of the conversations between the group was about her client, Tomdrick Cromer, who two weeks later would be found guilty of armed robbery and sentenced by the judge to life in prison without parole, the maximum sentence allowed.

In the video, you hear a voice that appears to be Judge Green discuss Cromer’s case. At one point, he says, “Well hopefully this jury does the right thing. Had some unusual cases lately. Unusual juries.”

“You want a judge that is not interested in the outcome. You want a judge that is interested in being fair,” said Merchant.

In fact, Georgia’s code of judicial conduct begins with two Canons which say in part, “Judges shall uphold the integrity and independence of the Judiciary” and “Judges shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all their activities.”

That’s because judges make decisions throughout the trial, from jury instructions to admitted evidence, that can impact the outcome of a case.

We showed the video to professor Michael Mears with the John Marshall Law School. He listened as the group talked about the amount of evidence needed to get a conviction, plea deals and the competency of a defendant.

Mears says in many counties like Cobb, prosecutors are assigned to a specific judge. They spend a lot of time together and too often the lines of professionalism blur.

In one part of the video, the prosecutors play the game rock, paper, scissors several times to decide who will handle a potential plea deal.



“What kind of message does that send to the general public about the seriousness of those proceedings? How much confidence does it build?” questioned Mears. “We’re talking about people’s lives.”

Instead of offended, the judge seemed to be entertained.

The attorney involved in that case says because of the DA's unwillingness to work with her client, he had to spend eight days in jail, just to be given straight probation when he returned to court.

“Hopefully what will come out of it is the judges across the state with your coverage will say, ‘Woah!’ We do that in our courtroom. Maybe we shouldn't be doing that. But if you look at the cannons of judicial ethics, it's very clear. You cannot show even by inference, show your bias,” said Mears.

Neither the judge or the DA's office would comment on the video. Several defense attorneys in Cobb County say they’re now planning to review recordings like it, to see what may have been said about their clients.

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Surveillance video has some attorneys questioning judge's fairness