Legal Ethics

‘On the Prowl’ Vegas Judge Removed for Sexual Improprieties, Racial Slurs

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A Las Vegas judge has been kicked off the bench for sexual improprieties and improper remarks that included racial slurs.

Judge Nicholas Del Vecchio initially was accused of sexually harassing his stepdaughter, beginning when she was about 14 years old and continuing when she was a court employee.

Del Vecchio had strongly denied the early relationship, and the allegation of sex with a minor was missing in an amended statement of charges filed as part of a negotiated settlement with the judge, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

But the judge admitted other sexual improprieties that included sex in hotels during working hours with the stepdaughter, who worked as his judicial executive assistant beginning in 2002, the story says. It quotes discipline special prosecutor Mary Boetsch as saying Del Vecchio was a man with great sexual hunger who was “constantly on the prowl.”

He also admitted using racial slurs and making suggestive comments to court employees.

The Commission on Judicial Discipline ordered Del Vecchio’s immediate removal and barred him from seeking judicial office in the future. He lost a bid for re-election in August.

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