Supreme Court backs Gates over recusal

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Friday, April 15, 2005 | 11:11 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that District Judge Lee Gates should not be forced to recuse himself from presiding over the new penalty hearing for a man who was originally sentenced to death for the 1998 execution-style killings of four young men

With the state's high court's ruling Gates is scheduled to hear Donte Johnson's new penalty phase on Tuesday.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas had filed an emergency motion on April 8 asking the Nevada Supreme Court to rule on whether Gates should be prohibited from handling Johnson's re-sentencing due to a potential conflict of interest involving the judge's law clerk.

The reason: Gates' law clerk, Nancy Bernstein, was previously an intern in the district attorney's office and worked on part of the prosecution's case against Johnson.

The Nevada Supreme Court decided that her previous work on the case was not substantial enough to pose a problem.