Nevada Rejects Reprimand Of Judge

The Nevada Supreme Court declined to impose a public reprimand of a judge as proposed by the Commission on Judicial Discipline

we consider whether a family court judge violated the Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct and examine the appropriate sanction for a violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct where the violation is not knowing or deliberate and aggravating factors are not present…

The discipline stems from one of Judge Hughes cases in which she addressed several motions by a father seeking to enforce the court’s child custody orders and entered an order purportedly holding the mother in contempt and changing custody of the minor child from the mother to the father. The Commission found the change in custody was entered as a contempt sanction and concluded that Judge Hughes had thus violated canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct. We do not consider this interpretation of Judge Hughes’ orders to be sound. We conclude that the Commission misconstrued her orders by disregarding relevant portions of each, failing to consider their effects, and relying inappropriately on pronouncements in court minutes.

The complainant in the matter was the mother. 

The court here took the commission to task on its interpretation of the record. 

The case is In the Matter 0f the Honorable Rena G. Hughes. (Mike Frisch)