Warrant out for former deputy DA

Bill Gang and Karen Zekan

Thursday, Sept. 3, 1998 | 10:49 a.m.

Problems continue to mount for former Deputy District Attorney Steve Hill.

A warrant for the arrest of the 32-year-old suspended lawyer was issued Wednesday when he failed to appear in District Court for sentencing on a 1997 drug possession charge.

The case had been returned to District Judge Michael Douglas's courtroom for the sentencing earlier this year when Hill was booted out of drug court after District Judge Jack Lehman determined that Hill falsified a drug test.

But the felony drug charge isn't Hill's only problem. He also faces felony charges of trying to steal his ex-wife's car on July 8, just hours after he last appeared on his drug case.

Hill, 32, bailed out of jail a short time later on the charges of attempted grand larceny and tampering with a motor vehicle.

He also faces misdemeanor domestic violence charges over a May 15, 1997, incident involving his former spouse. He is alleged to have shaken her and charged at her with his car.

In July, Hill agreed to place his license to practice law on "disability inactive status" because of "an underlying and continuing depressive disorder."

In a statement to the state bar association, Hill explained that he suffers from a condition similar to manic depression and admitted "I began to self-medicate myself under circumstances not in compliance with state law or the sound, well-intentioned practice of law."

Rob Bare, bar counsel of the State Bar of Nevada, said his office has solicited help from other lawyers to handle Hill's caseload.

Bare noted, however, that Hill's inactive status could turn into a suspension by the Nevada Supreme Court once he is sentenced on the felony drug charge.

Hill's legal problems have their origin in an incident a year and a half ago when the former prosecutor was caught by Metro Police officers riding in his Corvette with a known prostitute. Two rocks of cocaine were found in the vehicle.

He resigned and pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possessing a controlled substance in a deal that gave him an opportunity to have the charges dismissed -- and keep his law license -- if he completed Drug Court.

But after spending nearly a year and a half in the one-year program, he was booted out of Drug Court in May when Lehman determined he had submitted a false urine sample for his required drug test. That sample was drug free but a monitored sample he was required to give tested positive for cocaine.

Less than seven hours after he was in court to get a sentencing date on the drug count, according to a Metro Police report, Hill was arrested at the home of his former wife, Lillian Hill, on charges he broke into her 1989 Nissan 240 SX and tried to steal it.

The report states that the right door window was broken and Steven Hill was seen inside the car "hammering at the steering column with some type of device."

The woman's boyfriend, Charles Burrell, told police he went into the yard and Hill threatened him with the device and then used it to pound dents in the hood and a fender and break a second window.

Burrell told officers he rushed Hill and subdued the attorney, pinning him to the ground. Police described the instrument as a "lock-pulling device."

The police report said a man with Hill explained they were there to "repossess" the car, but the only available paperwork showed the woman had been given the vehicle as part of the couple's June 1997 divorce.

Although he has been released from jail, Hill's problems likely will escalate. Additional charges are expected to be filed because Lillian Hill had obtained a temporary protective order from a Family Court requiring him to stay away from his former spouse until May 1999.