Reno lawyer Mirch files for Supreme Court

Jeff Simpson and Cy Ryan

Monday, May 17, 2004 | 11:07 a.m.

A controversial Reno lawyer with a history of battles with one of his opponents filed Friday to run for the Nevada Supreme Court.

One of the contestants in the Sept. 7 primary to succeed Chief Justice Miriam Shearing is a Reno judge who less than eight months ago sanctioned the lawyer for filing "the most scandalous, unsupported pleading this court has had the misfortune to read during its tenure on the bench."

Kevin Mirch filed to run for the top court's Seat A, a spot three sitting judges have already filed for, including Washoe County District Court Judge Jim Hardesty. Two Southern Nevadans are among those who've filed for the spot being vacated by Shearing, the state's first elected woman Supreme Court justice: Clark County Family Court Judge Cynthia Steel and Clark County Probate Commissioner and former state senator Don Ashworth.

Mirch, 46, said he was running in an effort to return to the people of Nevada the legal system, which he says has become a corrupt one beholden to powerful casino interests. "The people want a square deal," Mirch said. "The state needs to be absolutely clean." Mirch said he believes Hardesty is a tool of the state's biggest businesses.

The two Northern Nevadans' battles go back at least seven years, when Hardesty as a lawyer in private practice successfully defended the Reno Gazette-Journal against a libel suit filed by a man represented by Mirch.

In October, Judge Hardesty filed for sanctions against Mirch and wrote the aforementioned scathing comment in a court order, along with a couple of other barbs. For example, of one Mirch claim Hardesty wrote: "This concept is preposterous and Mirch has offered no legal authority to support it." Of a Mirch charge about alleged bankruptcy fraud, Hardesty said: "This is absurd."

Mirch said Hardesty's treatment of him was based on politics, not the law.

"That order (Hardesty's) was so crazy. It was 'The Passion of Kevin Mirch,'th" Mirch said. "I think he's a smart man trying awfully hard to please important people. He's a guy who has political ambitions, while my ambition is to serve just one term and to give the people a square deal."

Hardesty on Friday said he couldn't comment on the sanctions he referred against Mirch that have yet to be imposed because the case is still pending. As for why Mirch, who unsuccessfully ran for an Assembly seat in 2000, is running for the Supreme Court seat Hardesty filed for two weeks ago, Hardesty offered: "I'm not going to comment on his motives."

But in his October opinion he referred to a number of other court sanctions Mirch has faced after he opined that: "Initially, the court believes Mirch has committed a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct."