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Supreme Court rejects lawsuit against former Churchill prosecutor

Monday, July 10, 2000 | 3:35 a.m.

The high court rejected an appeal from Fallon resident Marilyn O'Connor, who got an unfavorable ruling from a lower court judge prior to Pasquale's re-election loss in 1998.

Justices said the lower court didn't err, and in any case there was no point continuing with the lawsuit seeking Pasquale's removal from office because voters took care of that two years ago.

O'Connor contended Pasquale should have forfeited his county office because he unlawfully accepted an appointment to be chief judge in the court of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe.

The Supreme Court also ruled against O'Connor's appeal of a decision to drop one of Pasquale's deputy district attorneys, Bruce Matley, from the lawsuit. Matley had doubled as a prosecutor for the tribe.

O'Connor cited a section of the Nevada Constitution that says a person holding a "lucrative office under the government of the United States" can't have a paying state or local government office.

But Justices said the tribal job amounted to an employment contract and so "was not a public office in the ordinary sense."

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