Panel weighs Mosley’s fate

Kim Smith

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 9:19 a.m.

Members of the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline began deliberating the fate of District Judge Donald Mosley Thursday afternoon after hearing two hours of closing arguments in his weeklong ethics violation hearing.

Once the seven-member commission determines whether Mosley violated any judicial canons, it has 20 days to make the decision public.

If found guilty, Mosley could be sanctioned in any number of ways, including being removed from office.

Mosley is accused of 10 ethical violations stemming from three incidents between 1997 and 1999.

The Clark County judge, who handles criminal cases, is accused of using his judicial stationery to write to his son's principals and of releasing a criminal defendant from jail at the request of a family friend.

In addition, a criminal defendant scheduled to be sentenced by him testified on Mosley's behalf during a bitter child custody hearing.

In that case, Mosley met several times with the defendant and the defendant's attorney without prosecutors, and Mosley didn't recuse himself from the man's criminal case until the morning the man testified at the custody hearing.

Special Prosecutor Mary Boetsch asked the commissioners to look at each of the three incidents through the eyes of "objective, reasonable people."

In each instance, Boetsch said, an objective, reasonable person would think Mosley's actions were the result of his desire to gain a "personal advantage."

Some might think Mosley released Robert D'Amore from prison despite a questionable background because the woman who asked him to do so had testified on Mosley's behalf during a 1993 child custody hearing, Boetsch said.

The fact that District Judges Michael Cherry and Joseph Bonaventure, among others, testified that they, too, have released inmates upon being approached outside the courtroom is irrelevant, Boetsch said.

"The fact everyone else is doing it doesn't translate wrong behavior into right behavior," she said.

An objective, reasonable person might also think Mosley waited to recuse himself in the Joseph McLaughlin case because he wanted to make sure McLaughlin testified against the boy's mother during Mosley's custody battle, Boetsch said.

Upon learning that McLaughlin had potentially beneficial information about Molsey's former girlfriend, Mosley should have referred McLaughlin and his attorney to Mosley's child custody attorney, Boetsch said.

The judicial canons call for judges to avoid impropriety or the appearance of impropriety in their professional and personal lives, Boetsch said.

"You have to live up to them if you want the job," Boetsch said. "No one said it would be easy, and no one said it would be fun."

Mosley's attorney, Thomas Pitaro, said that Mosley didn't "willfully and deliberately" violate the canons.

The rule against writing personal letters on judicial stationery is intended to prevent judges from exerting their influence, Pitaro said. Both of the son's principals already knew Mosley was a judge.

The principals are "objective, reasonable people," and they testified they were not only unimpressed with the stationery, but also that Mosley didn't ask for special treatment, Pitaro said.

As for the release of D'Amore from jail, Mosley only needed to know that D'Amore would show up for his future court appearances, Pitaro said.

Mosley had been promised by a family friend that D'Amore, who was suffering from major health problems, would show, and he did, Pitaro said.

In the McLaughlin case, Pitaro said, he found it it hard to believe any reasonable person would fail to get involved upon learning that someone had information that his child was not being cared for.

"I damn well would want to know," Pitaro said. "I wouldn't say 'I'm a district judge. I don't want to be burdened with this, call my attorney.' "

Moreover, when Mosley met with McLaughlin and McLaughlin's attorney, they never discussed the merits of McLaughlin's criminal case, Pitaro said.

By the time McLaughlin was scheduled to be sentenced, Mosley was off the case, Pitaro said. "He didn't do that which he wasn't supposed to do, and that was sentence McLaughlin," he said.