Hearing master suspended in teenager’s case

Monday, Aug. 30, 2004 | 10:59 a.m.

A Clark County juvenile court hearing master has been suspended without pay for 30 days for inappropriately ordering a teenage defendant to remove his clothing, Chief District Judge Kathy Hardcastle said Friday.

Hearing Master Sylvia Beller will not be allowed to oversee juvenile cases when she returns, but will still work as a hearing master somewhere in either Family or District Court, Hardcastle said.

Hardcastle said she could not elaborate further on the "severe discipline" she says the court imposed on Beller because it was a personnel matter.

As seen on a video released to the Las Vegas Sun and other media Friday, Beller goes from being ready to sentence the teen to probation for a misdemeanor graffiti charge to ordering the bailiff to "lock his body up" because she didn't like his clothing during the Aug. 6 hearing.

"He doesn't deserve the chance for CCP (probation)," Beller said. "He wants to be a gangbanger, that's fine. He can stay in custody."

The video shows Beller first ordered the 16-year-old boy to remove a G-Unit T-shirt because she thought it was connected to a gang. It is a hip-hop group led by rapper 50 Cent.

Then Beller became angry that the boy's baggy pants were sagging and ordered the bailiff to detain him for the weekend. She ordered the bailiff to take his belt off in the courtroom, even though the bailiff warned her that doing so would cause his pants to fall down.

"Oh, well," Beller said.

The teen's pants fell down around his ankles, leaving him in his boxer shorts in front of the two male attorneys, the male bailiff and five women -- the judge, a Spanish interpreter, a district attorney, a probation officer and his mother.

The bailiff pulled the teen's pants up for him and held them up as he walked him out of the courtroom.

"Take him back," Beller told the bailiff. "I don't want him in here now, not looking like that."

Hardcastle said Beller's actions were inappropriate.

"The court does not condone the type of behavior exhibited by the hearing master, and she will no longer be assigned to matters involving juveniles," Hardcastle said. "This episode is not representative of the entire juvenile court system and it is embarassing to all of the fine people who work so hard to rehabilitate and assist the youth of Southern Nevada."

Court decorum bans any obvious gang colors or gang insignia from being worn in the courtroom, spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said, as well as immodest clothing such as short shorts.

"If it is a overt gang message, then we make them leave," Sommermeyer said, adding that he has never seen a judge have anyone undress.

When the Hells Angel and Mongols motorcycle gangs were in District Court earlier this summer, they were asked to take off jackets that clearly bore gang insignia before entering the courtroom. The bikers complied without incident, Sommermeyer said.

How the issue is handled, however, is up to the judge or hearing master, Sommermeyer said.

It was the way Beller handled his client, and not her taking offense to his T-shirt, that outraged Clark County Public Defender Phil Kohn.

Kohn filed a grievance with the court asking for Beller's removal because he said she humiliated his office's client for no reason, and "put him in custody for wearing the wrong T-shirt."

"My guess is that my client thought he was wearing his nicest T-shirt," Kohn said, noting that the G-Unit rap line is a very expensive, must-have item being touted in back-to-school ads for Macy's and Dillard's.

"And if she didn't like it, she should have said, 'You are going to go home and change and come back.' ... I've never seen a judge take away their belt while they are in court and let their pants fall down."

Kohn also said he disciplined his public defender for not protesting Beller's actions against the teenage client. Kohn said he could not discuss how the attorney was disciplined because it was a personnel matter, but did say he was not fired.

"He tells me that if you object to her (Beller), if you try to stop her, she becomes worse and gets more out of control. I don't think that was enough of a reason not to tell her to stop," Kohn said.

No one in the courtroom during the hearing protested Beller's orders, except for the bailiff, who told her the teen's pants would fall down if he took of his belt. A private attorney can even be seen joking with a district attorney in the courtroom on the video.

The teen spent four nights in jail before being released the morning of Aug. 10. There is nothing in his court file that gives any indication of any gang affiliation, Juvenile Judge William Voy said.

Voy unsealed the video Friday at the formal request of the Las Vegas Sun and other media. Juvenile court proceedings are generally open to the public but the records of the proceedings are closed unless unsealed by a judge's order, Voy said.

Voy said he saw a legitamate public interest to release the video in this case, but ordered the media not to release the teen's name or show his face.

Beller could not be reached for comment.