Former U.S. attorney, magistrate Ward dies at 81

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 | 9:21 a.m.

Joseph L. "Joe" Ward, who as a U.S. attorney and a U.S. magistrate in Las Vegas sought to rid the casino industry of mob corruption, died Saturday at a Las Vegas hospice. He was 81.

As a prosecutor in the late 1960s, Ward filed one of Las Vegas' first "mob skimming" cases, against the Riviera and Fremont hotels. In the process, he obtained an indictment against underworld boss Meyer Lansky, though the charges against Lansky later were dropped.

As Nevada's first full-time magistrate, Ward issued the 83 warrants in 1978 that allowed the FBI to raid the Stardust, then run by the Argent Corp.'s Allen Glick and Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal. The events of that era were the basis for the film "Casino."

Some of the Stardust search warrants OK'd by Ward also targeted Tony Spilotro, the reputed Chicago mob overseer in Las Vegas in the 1970s.

"The decision involving the Stardust was unpopular with some and, when word got out my father was going to sign the paperwork, he was visited by several prominent people who tried to dissuade him," Will Ward of Las Vegas said. "But they were not about to stop him from doing what he thought was right.

"My father was always thinking -- always working problems out in his mind. He often traveled not the easy road, but the right road," said Ward, a routing coordinator for Republic Services.

Ward served as U.S. attorney for Las Vegas from 1966 to 1969 and for seven months in 1972. He was a magistrate from 1972 to 1980. Also as U.S. attorney, Ward filed the first case in Nevada under the federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1966 in an effort to save Lake Tahoe from construction-related dangers.

The action resulted in an injunction that forced Douglas County to stop issuing building permits until a wastewater treatment plant was built to maintain Lake Tahoe's water quality standards.

And Ward prepared the first equal employment suit against a union west of the Mississippi, when he went after the Electrical Workers Local 357 in the late 1960s. The suit alleging violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, opened up job opportunities for black electricians in Las Vegas.

Born Nov. 13, 1923, in Taunton, Mass., Ward was one of seven children and his father worked in a watch factory. A World War II Navy veteran, who saw action in both Europe and Asia, Ward took a trip after the war to Northern Nevada and decided to stay, his family said.

He went to the University of Nevada-Reno on the G.I. bill and earned a bachelor's degree. In the early 1950s, Ward taught at schools in Nevada and California before earning a law degree from George Washington University.

In 1951, Ward married. He and his wife Evelyn had seven children. She preceded him in death in 1999.

In the late 1950s, Ward served as administrative aid to U.S. Sen. Alan Bible. From 1958 to 1960, he was legal adviser to the Internal Revenue Service in Reno.

Ward was a lawyer in private practice in Las Vegas in the early 1960s and, after leaving the U.S. attorney's office, was assistant general counsel for the Senate Select Committee for Small Business from 1969 until he was appointed magistrate in October 1972.

Ward was a member of the Nevada Bar Association and the American Bar Association, and was admitting to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was also a member of the Supreme Court Historic Society.

He was past president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and was a member of the Elks and the Knights of Columbus.

Ward is survived by three other sons, Joseph Ward Jr., a Carson City attorney, John Ward of Twin Falls, Ida., and Robert Ward of Las Vegas; two daughters, Evelyn Harrington of Boulder City and Alice Ward of Las Vegas; a brother, Hugh Ward of Henderson; a sister, Kay Farrell of Henderson; and 16 grandchildren.

He also was preceded in death by a daughter, Jeanie Thurmond, in 2003.

A rosary for Ward, a Southern Nevada resident of 31 years and Nevada resident of 50 years, will be said 6 p.m. Thursday at Palm Mortuary-Eastern. Private services will be at Southern Nevada Veterans Cemetery in Boulder City.