Mello blasts three Supreme Court justices in letter

Thursday, May 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A former high-level employee of the Nevada Supreme Court says it's "a mess" and that three of the justices are "the most ruthless, dishonest, manipulative group of people I have ever known."

Donald Mello, former administrator of the court, sent a letter Wednesday to all Nevada legislators, saying that Chief Justice Miriam Shearing and Justices Bob Rose and Cliff Young "are more enamored with money, power and the prestige of their office, rather than serving the citizens of Nevada."

Mello was director of the office for 10 years and left in January. Some say he was bounced from the job, but Mello maintains he left on his own terms and wanted to get away from the court.

Shearing, when asked about the comments, said, "Consider the source. He's an angry man." She declined to say whether the court had asked Mello to leave his job. But she added that he has indicated before that he was unhappy with the court.

Mello said he sent the letter because the three justices are trying to lay the blame for the court's problems on him. "I will not stand for it," he added.

Rose and Young were in Las Vegas for hearings Wednesday and did not return telephone calls.

Mello previously said Shearing knew about a scheme to hide money in the budget under digital equipment for $22,000-a-year salary increases for Shearing, Rose and Justice Charles Springer. Shearing has denied the allegation and said she withdrew the request to the Legislature as soon as she found out.

"When she (Shearing) pushed for a raise in the (court) meeting during which the budget was being prepared, I considered her words to be those of an extremely greedy person," Mello said.

There's a constitutional prohibition against giving pay raises to elective officials in midterm.

In the 1994 election, there were allegations that Rose used his office phone to conduct business for his bar in Clark County -- which Rose denied. Mello says now Rose insisted Mello do everything to delay examination of the phone records by a private investigator. The records showed Rose "was using public property to run his bar in Henderson," Mello said.

He characterized Rose as "incredibly vindictive," going so far as to try unsuccessfully "to have the son of a political adversary flunked out of law school in his third and final year."

Young, according to Mello, spent the two years before his re-election in 1996 traveling the state with his law clerks taking pictures and writing a history book. "This book was typed by his secretary on court time," Mello's letter states.

The book was published by a private tax-exempt foundation that Young created, Mello said. "The money to print the book came from a donation to the foundation. One would think then that the foundation owned the book. Not true. Cliff Young retained the copyright to the document."

He said Young discusses his cases with former law clerks in public and has permitted the president of a private corporation to use his court stationery, a misuse of public property.

Mello also challenges statements by his replacement, acting Administrator Georgia Rohrs, to an Assembly-Senate budget subcommittee that the court's request for $840,000 to computerize the district courts was premature.

Mello said he hired Rohrs to gather the figures and she was in charge of the project. Now Mello says she's trying to duck responsibility. She told the committee, "There's never been an assessment of what's needed."

But Mello said a contract was given to the National Center for State Courts to prepare a report to support the funding request for computers to tie the district courts to the criminal history repository.

Mello says there's no need for two more justices and additional staff, as the court has requested. Instead, the three judges should quit their outside activities and focus on writing legal opinions.

"If they are capable of reforming, Justices Rose, Shearing and Young should quit concentrating on personal aggrandizement," Mello said. "They should quit socializing with the executive director of the (state) discipline commission. They should focus on the facts put before them by the litigants, issue their opinions promptly and let people get on with their lives."

The court has asked for a 40 percent increase in its budget, but some legislative budget committee members say there may be major reductions in the request.

Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, who heads a subcommittee examining the Supreme Court budget, said it would be irresponsible for her to comment on Mello's letter. "He's not an employee anymore."

However, she said there is "no appetite" on the committee for paying justices extra to take part in a study of the Family Court system. "It's offensive to us that they chose to hide the money."

She said she had conversations with the judges and "sent a message to them to take a look at the budget and make more cuts."