Nevada

Lawyer charged with causing almost $100K in damage to Vegas hotel suite

A California lawyer has been criminally charged with malicious destruction of property, accused of having caused nearly $100,000 in damage to a Las Vegas hotel suite during what police described as a party in which alcohol apparently had been consumed. Robert Pearman was the registered guest and admitted responsibility, after…

Jun 5, 2013 8:30 PM CDT

3rd law student charged in beheading of exotic Vegas bird takes misdemeanor plea and gets 2 days

A third law student from the University of California-Berkeley has been charged with playing a role in the beheading death last year of an exotic bird at a casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Hazhir Kargaran, 26, was charged with three misdemeanors in the Clark County case and pleaded no…

May 23, 2013 4:10 PM CDT

Urban Dictionary defines slang for some court cases, but is it accurate?

Confronted with unfamiliar words that aren’t defined either by Webster’s or Black’s dictionaries, some lawyers and judges are turning to a street-slang resource, the Urban Dictionary. It has been used by courts to define terms including “iron” (a handgun), “catfishing” (Internet predators using fabricated identities) and “dap” (the fist-bump alternative…

May 21, 2013 2:10 PM CDT

Lawyer testifies OJ Simpson knew about guns, said ‘No deal. No way.’ when told of plea offer

Reluctantly testifying about his former client, O.J. Simpson, a Miami attorney on Friday contradicted key aspects of Simpson’s earlier testimony during a hearing about whether the former football great should be granted a new trial in his Nevada armed robbery case. Called to the stand by prosecutors and reminded that…

May 17, 2013 10:35 PM CDT

OJ Simpson: I gave $500K to lead lawyer for costs; he was supposed to defend me for free

Testifying this week at a hearing in which he hopes to win a new armed robbery trial, O.J. Simpson said he gave $500,000 to his lead defense lawyer, Yale Galanter. But that was for expert witnesses and other costs, Simpson contended—Galanter was supposed to defend the former football great for…

May 16, 2013 7:33 PM CDT

OJ Simpson is allowed to have one hand free as he argues for new armed robbery trial

In an effort to curtail the prison term he is serving for the armed robbery of sports memorabilia from a Las Vegas casino hotel, former football great O.J. Simpson is arguing for a new trial in a Nevada courtroom. His lead counsel, Yale Galanter, is being portrayed as cavalier about…

May 15, 2013 3:50 PM CDT

State’s top court to live-stream oral arguments in case over euthanasia of dog that killed toddler

The Nevada Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in July concerning a 120-pound dog that killed a toddler at a birthday party in 2012. The Rhodesian ridgeback mix, known as Onion, was surrendered by its owner to animal control authorities in Henderson after the death of Jeremiah Eskew-Skahan. However, animal…

May 14, 2013 7:42 PM CDT

Doctor and nurse at trial in murder case over Hep C transmission at endoscopy clinics

Last month, a Nevada jury awarded a record $524 million to three individuals over a Hepatitis C outbreak that allegedly was caused by extreme cost-cutting measures at a medical provider’s endoscopy clinics. Although the civil verdict is being appealed by the defendant health management organization that directed individuals to the…

May 8, 2013 3:25 PM CDT

Jailing man for ‘attitude,’ setting $1M bail was abuse of judicial discretion, top state court says

A Nevada judge said Juan Perez had an “attitude” when he sent the defendant to jail for 15 days and raised his bail from $3,000 to $1 million on a drug trafficking charge. However, a video of the Jan. 16 hearing shows Perez, if anything, was merely casual, the Las…

Apr 22, 2013 8:26 PM CDT

Lawyer convicted in $50M Las Vegas mortgage scheme

A lawyer working as a real estate agent has been convicted in a $50 million Las Vegas mortgage fraud and faces as much as 30 years or more in prison when he is sentenced this summer. David Mark, 37, of New Orleans, La., was convicted of bank fraud, mail fraud…

Apr 15, 2013 10:01 PM CDT

Jury awards record $524M in Hep C case; lawyer calls verdict a wake-up call to health insurers

In what is being billed as a record-high verdict in Nevada for a single case, a jury has awarded a total of $524 million to three individuals, two of whom said they got Hepatitis C as a result of treatment by a doctor who contracted with the defendant health insurer…

Apr 10, 2013 8:26 PM CDT

Prosecutorial misconduct allegations get huge ‘robo-signing’ case dismissed

A massive mortgage fraud case against two California title officers has been dismissed over allegations of prosecutorial misconduct by the Nevada attorney general’s office. Lawyers for the two defendants claimed that prosecutors in the attorney general’s office gave a grand jury an improper definition of what constitutes forgery and threatened…

Feb 28, 2013 6:57 PM CST

Judge who had jury deliberate at 3 a.m. to save her vacation agrees to reprimand

A Nevada judge who admittedly had a jury deliberate for nearly 18 hours in December 2010 in order to ensure that she could go on vacation as planned has agreed to a public reprimand. District Judge Valorie Vega also admitted that on six occasions she recessed the trial in the…

Feb 7, 2013 12:13 PM CST

Ex-prosecutor won’t be disciplined for relationship with judge

A former prosecutor won’t face attorney discipline over a relationship she had with a judge before whom she appeared. Although Family Court Judge Steven Jones is facing a complaint by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline, ethics charges won’t be pursued against attorney Lisa Willardson, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.…

Jan 31, 2013 4:10 PM CST

$7M in gold coins found in intestate man’s garage will be auctioned at courthouse

A reclusive Nevada man who died without a will last year has left some unusual issues for a court in Carson City to deal with. One of the biggest: What to do with the gold coins found in Walter Samasko Jr.’s garage, among cans of tuna fish? Although he had…

Jan 29, 2013 8:11 PM CST