Rhodes seeking a new judge

Kim Smith

Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

The arraignment of North Las Vegas Councilman John Rhodes on charges of filing false insurance claims was postponed again this morning.

District Judge Kathy Hardcastle decided against arraigning Rhodes because his attorney, Robert Lucherini, has filed motions asking her to take herself off the case.

Lucherini wants Hardcastle recused because when she worked for the state's attorney general's office 17 years ago, she set up the insurance fraud unit and could know things another judge would not.

Hardcastle is expected to reply to Lucherini's motion within the next week, and another judge will make a decision as to whether she should stay on the case.

Lucherini said it is unclear which judge will make that decision because Chief District Judge Lee Gates recused himself from the case because Rhodes was once going to run against Gates' wife, County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, for a commission seat.

A status hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 20.

The second-term council member was indicted in July on charges stemming from a claim he filed after an alleged burglary in February 1997.

According to the indictment, Rhodes received $5,250 from State Farm Insurance after he told insurance officials that a Rolex watch, jewelry and a videocassette recorder were stolen from his Diana Drive home on Feb. 10, 1997.

However, Rhodes wasn't living at the home at the time and had no property inside the home, the indictment states. There was no physical evidence of a break-in either.

Rhodes was also indicted in May after he allegedly filed a false insurance claim for a September 1998 burglary.

According to that indictment, Rhodes told State Farm that everything in his Diana Drive home had been stolen "except his bed."

Among the items stolen during the first burglary, Rhodes said, was a set of Callaway golf clubs worth almost $1,800. Insurance investigators reportedly learned that the late Michael Farino, who supposedly sold Rhodes the clubs, was actually alive and did not sell him the clubs.

Rhodes denies any intentional wrongdoing.