Charges against judges latest embarrassment for North Las Vegas

I can’t help but feel sorry for the citizens of North Las Vegas. But I feel no pity for the city’s two municipal judges, Catherine Ramsey and Sean Hoeffgen.

Perhaps they’ll be cleared of professional misconduct charges, but the fact that the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline is moving forward with complaints against the pair is not good — for them, anyway.

Just six of 209 complaints filed with the commission in fiscal 2015 made it to this stage, and of those, only two judges were publicly reprimanded; 195 complaints were dismissed before they became public.

When the commission pursues charges, it’s a big deal. Judges found in violation can be removed from office.

North Las Vegas already has two black eyes and a bloody nose from the Great Recession, city cutbacks and turmoil in City Hall. Having its municipal bench swept clean would be a kick in the teeth.

The Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct tells judges their behavior should promote confidence in the judiciary. Judges must avoid impropriety, including the appearance of impropriety. They must apply the law impartially and fairly, be patient, dignified and courteous. They must follow the law, not make it up as they go along.

Ramsey was charged with eight violations on Feb. 22, and Hoeffgen was charged with four violations. That they face so many violations says they should have known better. The allegations against them will be aired in public hearings, although the dates have not been set.

As if all this won’t provide enough embarrassment, at the same time Ramsey fights misconduct charges over her behavior in North Las Vegas Municipal Court she’ll be campaigning for a District Court judgeship. Because voters pay so little attention to judicial races and don’t bother turning out for primary elections, she could pull it off. I hope not.

That would be a another double-whammy disgrace to the Nevada judiciary and North Las Vegas.

Ramsey’s eight counts cover behavior over more than three years, from the time she was elected in 2011 through 2014. Most of the allegations previously were made public in Review-Journal news stories.

It’s already known that she charged $12,000 to her city purchase card to pay personal legal expenses. It’s already public that she and Hoeffgen have feuded. It’s no secret that she and the city attorney’s office despise each other. Her imperious treatment of staff is well known.

But the 10-page charging document details allegations that four specific legal decisions were questionable:

• One involved a hit-and-run accident involving a 5-year-old child. She reduced the charges and accepted a guilty plea outside the presence of the city attorney’s office.

• In another, she did not accurately enter the agreed resolution in the records and should have rejected a plea bargain.

• In a trial, she advised the defendants to file a motion for summary judgment, refused to take a plea, and acted in a combative manner with a deputy city attorney.

• In another trial, she changed a misdemeanor charge in a domestic violence case from a second offense to a first offense, failing to comply with the law.

For several months, she dismissed warrants in misdemeanor cases because they were signed by electronic signature. If this was retaliation against the city or the city attorney’s office, she was acting with bias, another violation of the judicial canons, according to the charges.

There are additional charges that will require potentially embarrassing testimony from deputies and staff. Special prosecutor Kathleen Paustian alleged Ramsey was “hostile, combative, arbitrary, unreasonable and demeaning to deputies.”

One of the four counts against Chief Judge Hoeffgen, who is entering his seventh year as a judge, holds the most potential for embarrassment.

He is accused of refusing to abide by an agreement to surrender the chief judge’s job to Ramsey because he thought North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee wanted him to keep the job. Hoeffgen would have violated the canon “prohibiting him from conveying the impression that any person is in a position to influence him,” the special prosecutor wrote.

How would Hoeffgen have obtained the impression the mayor wanted him to remain chief judge? I guess the answer to that question could require sworn testimony from Lee or people close to him.

Hoeffgen faces sanctions because he failed “to act at all times to ensure public confidence in the judiciary.” One count says he should have reported to the Judicial Discipline Commission “his knowledge of alleged misconduct” by Ramsey “regarding her treatment of court staff and deputies in the city attorney’s office and her improper actions in dismissing valid warrants.”

In other words, judges have an obligation to follow the anti-terrorism slogan, “If you see something, say something.”

Feuding in Municipal Court isn’t unheard of. The Las Vegas Municipal Court had its share of squabbles and infighting some years ago. But when the drama interferes with the law and protecting the public, that crosses a line.

That makes me feel sorry for residents of North Las Vegas.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column runs Thursdays. Leave messages for her at 702-383-0275 or email jmorrison@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @janeannmorrison.