- Quickdraw McLaw
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Nothing like a good ol’ fashioned plea deal rejection to stir up the conspiracy mill. The RJ is reporting today that Judge Kathleen Delaney (she of the Basset Hound pictures and green robe fame) disregarded a stipulated sentence of probation for a sex offender. We’ll skip over the procedural aspects of that (which you can read in the article) skip to the fun part. The defendant’s attorney, Robert Draskovich, expressed concern over Judge Delaney’s relation with a member of the beloved 8NewsNow I-Team, Colleen McCarty. According to the RJ, McCarty, who just graduated from Boyd last month, completed an internship with Judge Delaney in April. Draskovich claims that there was no media coverage on his client’s story until September 2012, a few months before McCarty began her internship with Judge Delaney. We’re not sure how that impacts anything, but it is outweighed by the fact that McCarty continued to report on the case and the sentencing last month after completing the internship and without disclosing her prior internship with Delaney. While the articles suggests a breach of journalistic ethics, there is no discussion about whether there was a breach of any legal ethics. We also do not know if McCarty intends on practicing here, but the article indicates she is prepping for the bar.
So, we turn this ready-made MPRE/Ethics question over to you for analysis. First, does a law student who works as an intern for a judge have to follow the rules of professional conduct? Is it a violation of the RPC to report on a case being handled by a judge you interned for? Are there any other issues we should be concerned about?
Also, are green robes an appropriate fashion choice after Memorial Day?
I'm not sure a green robe is ever an appropriate fashion choice, despite my love and respect for Judge Delaney.
That said, I don't think the reporter is obligated under the RPC yet, but question not recusing herself from the story.
I have neither love nor respect for a jurist that decorates her courtroom like a 9 year old girl with a basset hound fetish.
Add to that she is clueless on both application of the law and the coherent implementation of same and you have, yet another joke for the 8th.
I hope Bobby Dras gets her disqualified.
This "so-called" journalist is most unethical reporter in Las Vegas.
Judge Delaney is incompetent but has sucked up to TV-8 over the years.
Mix the two and you get a disaster in the legal system.
Yeah, the scumbag sex abuser deserves prison, but there is still due process, something Delaney and McCarty seem to forget.
Where did due process get implicated? McCarty covered the story in September '02. Three months later, she applied for and got an externship with Judge Delaney.
During the externship, Judge Delaney decided that Santiago was indigent and accepted his plea. That's it. It's not like McCarty could have been secretly advising the Judge and giving her the lowdown on Santiago. Should she have disclosed that she did work for Judge Delaney? Sure. Was it a breach of professional ethics to report on him? Only if she used information she gained during the externship, and that doesn't look like the case here.
September 2012. Oops.
She didn't accept the stipulated sentence and did not allow him to withdraw his plea, which she should have. That's the violation. And I don't think it's a coincidence that McCarty began reporting on this issue within months of receiving an externship with the same judge who is on the case, considering the case was not getting any coverage for years before that. Just saying. Fishy.
And McCarty was covering the case while she was working for the judge.
First, it isn't a clerkship, it's an externship. If they are still run anything like they were when I went there, you apply for a type of externship (judicial, DA, PD, public interest, etc), not for a specific judge. Then, if you aren't a complete spaz, you get placed with a judge.
Looking at 8newnow.com, I see two articles about Santiago. One was in November, before McCarty would have even known she was selected for an externship, and one is in late May, after her externship would have been over. Between November and May, though, it doesn't look like she filed any stories relating to Santiago. Google-fu netted me a facebook photo that McCarty put up of Santiago in May, asking if the wheels of justice moved too slow. And with that, my 0.4 set aside for goofing off came to an end. Is it still "covering" a case if there's nothing to report?
Is there any evidence she was covering the story while interning? I can only find her name on stories about Paul Santiago from November 2012 and May 2013.
No RPC violations until she becomes a Nevada-licensed attorney. However, she may have issues with the State Bar's Admissions Dept, and might have an interesting Character & Fitness Hearing in her future.