Suspended hearing master gets warning

Mary Manning and Christina Littlefield

Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.

Hearing Master Sylvia Beller has been put on notice that when she returns from suspension later this month for inappropriately ordering a teenage defendent to remove his clothing, she has one last chance to return to the bench.

Chief District Judge Kathy Hardcastle said Wednesday that Beller will not return to Juvenile Hearing Master. In addition, hearing masters and commissioners serving in Family Court will be rotated beginning Sept. 9, and judicial officers face refresher training in procedure, ethics, courtroom decorum and etiquette.

Beller will receive more intense training and be supervised by presiding Family Court Judge Steve Jones, Hardcastle said.

"She's been told, basically, this is the last chance," Hardcastle said. "Personnel decisions are never easy, and when you have 13 years invested in an employee, you take a closer look. Is there something there to be salvaged?"

Beller could not be reached for comment.

The changes are in response to the hearing master's actions on Aug. 6, court officials said, when Beller's orders left a 16-year-old defendant standing in court only in his boxer shorts with his pants around his ankles.

According to a videotape of the proceedings released to the media, Beller ordered the teen to remove a G-Unit shirt during an Aug. 6 hearing because she thought it was gang-related. When she then saw that the teen's baggy pants were sagging, she decided he did not deserve to be placed on probation and detained him for four days on a misdemeanor graffiti charge.

Beller ordered the bailiff to remove the teen's belt in the courtroom even after the bailiff warned her that doing so would cause his pants to fall down. The bailiff picked his pants up and held them up for the teen after handcuffing him.

District Attorney David Roger declined comment on Wednesday's actions.

"It's best left to judges to decide," he said.

The incident outraged Clark County Public Defender Phil Kohn, who said Beller humiliated his office's client for no justifiable reason. Kohn filed a grievance with the court asking for Beller's removal and said he disciplined the public defender who failed to speak up for the teen in the hearing that day.

"I knew that was coming," he said of the actions taken in Family Court. "Judge Hardcastle has been very, very sincere in her concern."

Hardcastle said Beller was suspended without pay for 30 days and would not be overseeing juveniles on her return.