Clerk stunned as woman vows to shoot herself

Bill Gang

Thursday, Nov. 6, 1997 | 10:39 a.m.

A Las Vegas woman, notified that a legal challenge of her eviction from a Bonanza Road apartment was denied, blurted on the telephone to a Justice Court clerk, "Oh my God, I'm going to have to shoot myself."

While the clerk was still on the phone with Ann Franz, Justice of the Peace Doug Smith said the woman set down the phone about 11 a.m. Wednesday. A moment later, the clerk heard a gunshot.

Franz was taken to a local hospital, but it wasn't known today whether her injuries were life-threatening. Metro Police did not respond and were not called to the apartment, according to their records.

"We feel terrible about it," Smith said Wednesday. "My clerk feels terrible."

"I don't know why it went down that way and why (Franz) put the onus on a poor clerk," the judge said, explaining that the clerk had been relaying the court's order in Spanish and was upset for hours after the incident.

Smith said the eviction of Franz and her husband, Robert Franz, was ordered by the court after they failed to appear for a hearing on the original eviction and then failed to properly file an appeal with the Justice Court.

The judge said the process to evict them from the apartment at 920 W. Bonanza Road had been ongoing for weeks.

Smith said the couple contended in their incomplete appeal documents that they never were served with the original eviction notice, and that they had filed a response with the court before the original hearing date.