Appeals court rules for fired NLV official

Monday, March 15, 1999 | 11 a.m.

A federal appeals court has upheld more than $141,000 in damages for a North Las Vegas court administrator fired after defying a veteran judge's order to bar court employees from training seminars unless they'd worked on his re-election campaign.

Georgia Nunez was exercising her right of free speech when she invited two clerks who hadn't worked on Judge Gary Davis' campaign to attend a training seminar, said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Davis, a Municipal Court judge for 16 years, was removed from office by the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission in December 1995.

Kristina Holman, a lawyer for Nunez, said she didn't know whether Davis was ever disciplined for allowing only campaign workers to attend employee training sessions. She said Nunez worked on Davis' re-election campaign, "in order to protect herself and her employees."

Nunez now works in a Las Vegas law office, Holman said. The damages, $141,446, cover her lost salary through the time of trial in September 1997, Holman said.

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