Judge quits downtown property case

Bill Gang

Thursday, Feb. 4, 1999 | 11:29 a.m.

District Judge Mark Denton has decided to voluntarily step aside from the marathon court battle over a prime piece of downtown property seized by the Las Vegas Downtown Redevelopment Agency through eminent domain.

The Pappas family sought to remove Denton from the case because of his revelation last week that he has taken campaign contributions from some of the downtown casinos that could benefit from his rulings.

While Denton stated that he would not be influenced by the contributions and would rule impartially, he said he was stepping aside to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

The case, which has gone through two district judges before Denton, will now be assigned to another judge, whose campaign disclosure statement likely will be scrutinized by the Pappas family.

Campaign contributions, under Nevada law, generally are not considered to rise to the level of a conflict that requires a judge to step aside.

But Harry Pappas disagrees.

"We want a judge who didn't take their dirty money," he said. "They're giving money to this judge and then they're asking to get our property. That's a conflict of interest."

But campaign contributions from downtown casinos, their parent corporations or individual owners are not unusual in judicial races, and it could be difficult to find a Clark County judge who has not taken such donations.

One option is to appoint a senior district judge or visiting judge to keep the case on track for a June trial.

At issue is the Pappas property on the northwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Carson Avenue, where the city's red parking garage sits. The city plans to give the structure to the Fremont Street company, comprising the owners of several downtown casinos.