Supreme Court calls plea ‘judicial coercion’

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 | 11:36 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that former District Judge Jeffrey Sobel used "judicial coercion" in pressuring a Las Vegas man to enter a plea to involuntary manslaughter in the beating death of another man.

The court said Thompson Keith Yazzie should be allowed to withdraw his Alford plea in the death of Gerald Brown in July 1997 at the High Hat Regency Motel. An Alford plea is treated as a guilty plea. Yazzie was sentenced to a term of two to eight years.

In its decision, the court referred to a prior case in which it ruled the judge adopted the role of counselor to a criminal defendant, forgoing the duty as a neutral arbiter of the criminal prosecution.

The court said Sobel acted similarly to the prior case. It said, "A plea of guilty must be the result of an informed and voluntary decision, not the product of coercion."

The wife of the victim, Judith Brown, met Yazzie and a companion at a bar and told the two men she had been beaten up by her husband, Gerald. Yazzie and his friend agreed to retaliate and beat up Brown, but Brown died from the injuries.