District judge arrested in Henderson on domestic battery charge
District Judge Jasmin Lilly-Spells was arrested Sunday in Henderson on a misdemeanor count of domestic battery after police accused her of assaulting her husband.
Henderson Detention Center records show that the 39-year-old judge was booked there and was released after posting $3,000 in bail.
Officers were called to Lilly-Spells’ home at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday after a report of a domestic battery, according to a Henderson Police Department arrest report. Lilly-Spells’ husband told police that during an argument, she shoved him into a wall while he “begged her to stop,” according to the report.
“He suffers from Sciatica and was in pain prior to the altercation, but her pushing him into the wall had worsened the pain,” the report stated.
Records show that the incident happened at an address near Horizon Ridge Parkway and Paradise Hills Drive.
According to the report, Lilly-Spells was upset with her husband on Sunday and carried two PlayStations into a bedroom closet. Her husband, whose name was redacted from the report, “believed the anger was directed at him” and followed her into the bedroom while recording a video on his phone.
He found Lilly-Spells in the bedroom closet, stabbing at one of the PlayStations with a screwdriver.
“As he pans the camera around, Jasmin’s voice can be heard saying ‘Turn it off,’” the report stated. “(Redacted) screams ‘Don’t you stab me!’”
The officer who wrote the report concluded that Lilly-Spells was “the aggressor” during the confrontation in the closet, where she was seen in the video approaching her husband “with a closed fist and screwdriver in hand.”
Neither suffered from “apparent injuries,” other than an “extremely minute scratch” on Lilly-Spells’ wrist, according to the report.
Lilly-Spells’ attorney, Warren Geller, was at the home as police investigated and told officers that Lilly-Spells would not speak to detectives. Geller declined to comment on Monday.
The arrest report stated that Lilly-Spells’ father took the couple’s four children to his home before officers arrived.
Lilly-Spells is due in court in the battery case June 6, court logs show.
Before being elected in November 2020 to Department 23 in Clark County District Court, Lilly-Spells was a chief deputy public defender for the county.
She previously served as a mediator, parking arbitrator and court-appointed special advocate representing abused and neglected children.
According to a November profile posted to UNLV’s website, Lilly-Spells is a 2009 graduate of Boyd Law School. As a district judge, she hears both criminal and civil cases.
A spokeswoman for District Court declined to comment on the arrest.
A sign in front of Lilly-Spells’ courtroom indicated that her cases were being heard by another judge on Monday morning.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites. Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.
