Judge Fine tearful, apologetic as hearing concludes

Mark Miller

Friday, Sept. 4, 1998 | 11:20 a.m.

A hearing on Family Court Judge Fran Fine ended Thursday with Judicial Discipline Commission members questioning not only Fine's conduct, but also her 1997 ruling to strip a mother of child-visitation rights.

They also questioned the entire Family Court system.

"It's a mistake and it's a systematic mistake. It's a mistake not of your intent but of process," Nevada Judicial Discipline Commissioner Michael Griffin said. His comments came after Fine acknowledged that she probably should not have written a court order to strip the mother's rights based mainly on a psychologist's letter rather than court proceedings.

Fine, a Family Court judge since 1993, faces a charge of failing to disclose a relationship with a court-appointed mediator and three counts of improperly communicating with court-appointed mediators and therapists in three cases before her from 1993 to 1997.

In 1995 she was fined $5,000 by the commission for improper conversations with Family Court judges. Two commissioners of the seven-member body, Billy Jean Fuller and Alan Lefebvre, both no longer on the commission, wrote a dissenting opinion that Fine should have been removed from office because they felt her testimony revealed no remorse.

Again facing the possibility of removal, Fine apologized repeatedly on Thursday.

"I can't express how sorry I am," she said. "I was an idyllic young judge trying to save everybody."

"I believe that as a new judge you made some mistakes, but what concerns me is the case in 1997," Commissioner Valerie Cooke said.

In 1997 Fine presided over custody hearings in the divorce case of Kinnard vs. Kinnard. During emotional testimony Wednesday, Laura Kinnard revealed that she was prohibited by Dr. Elizabeth Richett from touching her son at their last meeting in April 1997. She has never been told why contact was not allowed, she said.

"As I listened to her yesterday, my heart went out to her," Fine said Thursday. "I was not aware that she wasn't allowed contact."

Kinnard also testified that, because of the court's restrictions, she has not known the whereabouts of her now 10-year-old son since their last phone call in June 1997.

Fine defended taking custody and other parental rights from Kinnard in July and October 1997 hearings, saying Kinnard had ignored court directives by skipping therapy meetings and trial dates and had moved without the court's approval.

Fine broke protocol and initiated the hearings based on a letter from Richett that alleged emotional abuse by Kinnard toward the child, Fine said. Fine said she felt that the child needed immediate protection and that a June settlement agreement between the Kinnards gave her the authority to call a hearing rather than wait for one of the parties to file a motion.

"It's not the judge's responsibility to prosecute on their own initiative but to judge material brought by the parties," Commissioner Brent Adams said.

"And as the parties did not bring the letters, you should not have acted on it," Adams told Fine. "I think you have the best interests at heart, but that is not the legal process, and this to me is the heart of the matter."

Breaking down, Fine tearfully said she was sorry.

After a break to compose herself, Fine said she had violated judicial rules to speed up the process in the interest of the parties.

Among the violations was her communication with court-appointed mediators and therapists outside the presence of the parties involved, she said. This occurred in the cases of Kinnard vs. Kinnard, McMonigle vs. McMonigle and Greisen vs. Greisen.

"I will not do it again, and it was wrong," she said. "And fortunately the law has been changed."

The Family Mediation and Assessment Center, which provided reports to Fine outside the presence of the parties, was changed in October 1997 to the Family Mediation Center, and it no longer provides such assessments for judges.

In addition to three charges of improper communications, Fine is charged with appointing her first cousin, Faith Garfield, as mediator in the Kinnard case.

"I apologize in retrospect. I told them she was a close friend but I did not tell them she was my cousin," she said. "I was not so concerned with me as I was with helping these people, but I really do apologize."

Though the hearing is over, attorneys for both sides must file written final arguments that the commission will then study to render a decision "in 20 days or so," commission general counsel Leonard Gang said.

Fine, 46, is up for re-election this year and won a nonpartisan primary on Tuesday.