Young, Jones Play Dirty in Final Days of Fight for Supreme Court

Thursday, Oct. 31, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The two candidates have intensified their personal attacks on one another in the final days of the race, while the court's 1,800-case backlog and infighting among justices appears to have been forgotten.

Each candidate contends he didn't start the dash to negativity. Each also maintains his advertisements are factual. And each concedes negative campaigning wins close elections.

In his latest advertisement, Jones reminds voters about an objectionable joke Young told in 1989 during a legislative hearing.

Last weekend, Young took a shot at Jones' wife, Debra, by broadcasting a commercial that showed a newspaper article detailing her Jan. 27 arrest after a dispute with her husband.

"I think he is a formidable candidate," said Young, explaining his use of negative commercials.

Young, 73, competes for his third, six-year term on the court. He is a former state senator and served in Congress from 1953-56. Jones, 38, is a family court judge in Clark County.

"In the past, negative ads have been effective," Jones said. "He is doing it because he thinks that is what it will take to win."

But Jones has no qualms about digging out the joke that his opponent has been apologizing for since he delivered it.

At a legislative hearing seven years ago, Young quipped that sometimes there is an interval between the time a woman is raped and the time she reports the crime "because the check bounced."

"Sometimes when women claim they were sexually assaulted, they in fact probably were not," Young said at the time. "They only claim they were, when something they wanted didn't come through."

As a justice, Young said he signed the order requiring courses on gender bias for judges. As a congressman and legislator, he said he has voted for equal rights for women.

"I admit it was inappropriate," said Young about the joke.

Still Jones maintains the joke was so tasteless and untrue that it should not have been made in any environment, let alone in the Legislature.

In turn, Young defends his use of the commercial about Mrs. Jones' arrest, noting Jones undoubtedly has attended seminars on domestic violence through his job as a family court judge. Young said Jones also knows police must arrest the aggressor in family disputes.

Young said, citing Debra Jones'arrest record, that "It is clear he was making fun of his wife's pregnancy."

Debra Jones slapped her husband, hit him with a flower arrangement and a shower curtain rod. A judge later ordered her to undergo counseling. The arrest came after Jones called police.

Earlier this month, Jones said the matter was private and that he and his wife are happily married.

In mid-October, Young hammered Jones in an ad that showed a goofy guy serving as lawyer for a man accused of not paying child support. Then in the next scene the goof has become a judge. He gives a wink as he renders a decision for his old client who still is behind in his child support payments.

The reference is to when Jones signed an order in 1994 that affected Frank Muscari, once a legal client of Jones.

Jones cried foul after the commercial was released. Because both sides in the dispute agreed, he said he signed the order that increased Muscari's child support and freed him from serving time in jail.

Jones said he never saw Muscari in court. He signed a report filed by hearing master Joan Buckley, who interviewed parties in the case.

Family court judges sign 20,000 to 30,000 orders based on reports of masters each year, Jones said.