Former justice of peace fined for unfinished work

Friday, Oct. 8, 2004 | 11:12 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Commission on Judicial Discipline said Thursday it has fined former Sparks Justice of the Peace Paul Freitag $2,000 and barred him from ever holding another judicial office because he left office without deciding a number of cases.

The commission said Freitag left his office with more than 12 criminal cases hanging and more than 36 small claims and other civil matters totaling $83,000 that were not decided.

The undecided civil cases date back to December 1993 and extend up to March 2003. The disputes were over amounts ranging from $200 to $5,000 each.

In one criminal case, a $50,000 bond has been in dispute that was not decided by Freitag.

Of the 12 criminal cases, trials were held in six and no decisions issued.

Freitag signed a stipulation with the judicial discipline commission agreeing to the penalty.

The commission said Freitag's "willful failure to decide so many cases over such a prolonged period denied the litigants their right to a fair adjudication at all, not to mention a prompt one." It said Freitag never presented any mitigating explanation as to why he didn't decide these cases.

Freitag has agreed to write letters of apology to the people whose cases he screwed up.