Las Vegas news briefs

Wednesday, Dec. 9, 1998 | 11:31 a.m.

More than 25 percent of Kelly students visited the West Las Vegas Library, obtained a library card, attended a library program, checked out a book and returned it by the due date. The contest encouraged students to read more and parents were encouraged to get involved with their children's reading. The Connect for Kids at the Library program ran between Sept. 14 and Nov. 20.

ADOPTION -- The first jury trial to decide a guardianship/adoption case in Las Vegas has been delayed -- possibly for two to three months.

Talia and Sam Zeer had asked for the trial, which was scheduled to start last Monday, in an attempt to continue guardianship and/or adopt the 10-year-old girl they have been raising as their daughter for eight years.

The Zeers say the attorney for the birth parents, an Iraqi couple who recently emigrated to Detroit, asked for the delay.

In the meantime, Family Court Judge Bob Gaston is expected to rule on visitation rights.

FIRE -- A West Las Vegas family of three has moved in with relatives for the holidays after a fire caused $25,000 of damage to their home Tuesday evening.

At about 4:30 p.m., the Las Vegas Fire Department was called to 405 W. Fredrick Ave. just off D Street, department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

It took firefighters about 10 minutes to put out the fire, which started in one of the bedrooms.

An adult and three girls ages 17 to 9 years old were watching television in the living room when they noticed a burning smell and found the bedroom on fire.

The exact cause is being investigated, but the fire appeared to be accidental and may have been electrical, Szymanski said.

PLEA -- A Las Vegas tattoo artist who admitted fondling two customers will serve only a three-month prison stay rather than the life prison sentence that would have been possible if he had been convicted of felony charges at a trial.

One of James Tubbs' victims was a 15-year-old girl who was getting a tattoo on her stomach.

Rather than face the felony counts, Tubbs pleaded guilty in September to a gross misdemeanor lewdness charge in the plea bargain

On Tuesday, District Judge Jeff Sobel gave Tubbs probation instead of the maximum sentence of a year in jail, but ordered that he serve the first three months of his probation in the county jail.

Tubbs, who worked at the Pair-A-Dice Tattoo Parlor at 304 E. Sahara Ave., was indicted by a Clark County Grand Jury after the teenager and another woman complained that Tubbs fondled them while in the midst of their tattoo processes.

Tubbs originally was charged with sexual assault, which carries a life prison sentence and no chance for probation, and attempted sexual assault.