- law dawg
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In a matter of days, we’ll turn the calendar to 2024 and 2023 will be history. Before we do, here’s our annual look back at the top stories that affected the Las Vegas legal community this year. Before we do that, thanks again for reading, commenting, and offering your input because without you, the blog is dead. As always, we’re open to your suggestions on how we can improve the blog, so if you have any comments, criticisms, ideas, gossip, or want to volunteer to write a guest post, let us know. Here’s wishing you a happy 2024! Maybe we’ll see you again next year!
Our top ten Las Vegas related legal stories of 2023, in no particular order, are:
10. An arrest was finally made in the murder of Tupac Shakur. 9. Joey Gilbert got a new job working for Douglas County.
8. Gov. Lombardo signed several bills his first year, including AB 15 increasing judical base pay and AB408–the “no-capping” law.
7. The shooting at UNLV.
6. There were several changes at the RJC with several appointments, including a new discovery commissioner.
5. We got several reminders throughout the year that ethics in Nevada is hard
4. AG Aaron Ford charged six “fake electors.”
3. RIP Melanie Andress-Tobiasson, David Krieger, Sal Gugino, Stan Hunterton, Michael Wilfong, and all of our other colleagues, friends, and family we lost this year.
2. Henry Ruggs pleads guilty and is sentenced 3-10 years for fatal DUI.
1. Robert Telles continues to get headlines in connection with the murder of Jeff German.
* Honorable Mentions
- VGK won the Stanley Cup.
- Michele Fiore took the bench in Pahrump Justice Court.
- Nevada officially celebrated Juneteenth for the first time.
- Two teenagers were arrested for killing a cyclist.
- A group of teenagers were arrested for the murder of Jonathan Lewis, Jr.
- Jonathan MacArthur was reminded that you are being recorded in the courtroom.
- Major data breaches happened on the Strip followed by lawsuits.
- The Nevada Legislature is gifting the A’s a stadium.
- F1 was a financial success for some casinos, but an absolute nightmare for much of community.
- We made the jump from Blogger to WordPress and the blog is deader than ever.
What do you think? What did we miss? What do you think will be the big stories next year? Which big firm is teetering on the brink? Is Alverson Taylor really done? Any judges about to have that meltdown that pushes them into the spotlight? Any wild predictions about 2024? Stay tuned….
That’s crazy. Fiore has been on the bench a full year and I haven’t heard anything about her since. How is she as a judge?
I wonder how Judge Steve Harvey is doing, too. He’s been on the bench almost two full years now. I can’t bring myself to watching his court proceedings, though.
Predictions for 2024? I’ll start:
Telles life in prison and the Six electors plead out to some deferred prosecution misdos;
I keep seeing stuff about a black swan event in 2024, no idea what that will be, just hoping that 2024 is only half as insane as 2020.
Guaranteed
What’s a black swan event?
A black swan is an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences. It is characterized by its extreme rarity, severe impact, and widespread insistence that it was obvious in hindsight.23 The term is based on an ancient saying that presumed black swans did not exist until they were discovered in Australia in 1697.0 Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a former Wall Street trader, popularized the term in his book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.” Black swans can be positive or negative, and there are ways to account for this problem, including understanding The Lucretius Problem, factoring in a Margin of Saftey, and having skin in the game.
Response: You missed the bike killers case and Rancho High cases which are bigger stories I suspect than the Tupac or Joey Gilbert stories. Some of those people can RIP; the statute of limitations has expired on well wishes for some of them. The welcome absence of James Hardesty is the best and biggest development that occurred in 2023.
Predictions:
(1) Judicial Ethics takes a look at the substantial delays in Department 11 being 90 days behind every other department.
(2) Nevada joins the states that bars Trump from the ballot but it will not occur until after the caucus/primary
(3) Thorndal joins Alverson as the next ID firm to fold/merge/disappear.
(4) The Bike Killers case will get as much or more national attention than the Telles case in 2024.
(5) Sturman and Denton will retire in 2024 and state that they are tired of dealing with the nonsense that the EJDC has become.
(6) Greater than 60% chance that I have a stroke in 2024 based upon blowing a gasket at one of these ________________ (insert invective of choice) on the EJDC Bench.
(1) Someone is going to file a Complaint regarding how slow Dept XI is compared to all other departments. To think in the span of 16 months we went through three judges and from that department being business court and being as fast as any department to where we are today that that department is 90 days behind everyone else.
(2) Thorndal will be the next firm to dissolve after Alverson. Yes Alverson Taylor is done
(3) The Bike Killer Case will get more attention nationally than the Telles case with the caveat that it is more likely to get pled than Telles who seems determined to ride the bomb into the ground.
How long before someone files a 14th Amendment challenge to the presumptive Republican nominee in Nevada? Do you believe that it will be successful in Nevada? I cannot see it being processed before the February 8th caucus. (This is a legal question without advocating for either political side).
I had Stan Hunterton teach my trial ad class at Boyd for my 3L year in ’22-’23. Although he wasn’t quick as he used to be, you could tell he thoroughly enjoyed teaching the class and getting us excited about the law. He told it like it was. I only knew him for a short time, but I’m glad I had the chance to meet him before he passed.
RIP Stan
You missed that there are currently two family court judges being investigated for having sexual relationships with their marshals.
If this is true, these judges should be removed immediately. If these judges were men, it would be all over the papers and they would have been gone months ago. Anytime you have this kind of power imbalance in a sexual relationship, particularly by an elected official with a staffer, it should be an automatic removal/resignation.
Also, Bill Clinton should have been cancelled a long, long time ago. Apparently some Epstein docs are about to come out that will further implicate him.
RE: Blog Deader than Ever
The comments in the former blog were entered by topic. Now the comments are not connected as a thread.