Lawyer in contempt, placed in custody

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Tuesday, March 1, 2005 | 9:18 a.m.

An unprepared defense attorney was held in contempt of court by North Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Stephen Dahl and briefly placed in custody by bailiffs last week.

Dahl said Philip Singer was scheduled to argue a preliminary hearing on Feb. 24 for a person in custody, but arrived in court saying he "thought someone was supposed to be standing in for him, and he couldn't go forward because he wasn't prepared. He didn't even have the case file."

The judge said he told Singer, "You've done this before and we're going forward." He said he ordered the attorney to "go to your office and get the file because we're going to go ahead."

"Thirty, 40 and 50 minutes passed and we didn't even get a phone call from him (Singer)," Dahl said. "I relieved the district attorney and all the witnesses and issued a contempt of court order against him (Singer)."

Dahl said Singer showed up over an hour later and because the bailiffs were not sure if Dahl was still at the courthouse they told Singer he could make a call to someone and pay the $1,000 bench warrant set by Dahl or he would have to be placed in custody.

Dahl said Singer told his bailiffs "No , I'll just go to jail."

But Singer said he "didn't even get past the bailiffs."

"I walked up to the door of Dahl's court and they (the bailiffs) said, 'We're sorry but you're under arrest.' They put the handcuffs on really tight. I had the cuff imprints on my wrist all weekend."

Singer remained in custody for about 30 minutes until bailiffs found Dahl, who then summoned Singer into court.

"There was no court reporter in the court and he (Dahl) just started yelling at me," Singer said. "He said my trial tactics are unacceptable and said he was disgusted with me. He said he had been holding in his feelings about me for years. He said by holding me in contempt 'I think I have your attention.' "

Dahl said he sent home the court reporter along with the prosecutors and their witnesses due to Singer not returning on time. He said he never told Singer he was disgusted with him or his trial tactics and added, "I haven't known him 'for years.' "

"It's just he had done this three or four times," Dahl said. "I told him he couldn't continue to show up unprepared, leaving people waiting. I ordered him to pay $200 to the law library and released him."

Dahl said Singer apologized and told him he had run into an emergency back at his office and "didn't think it would matter if he showed up on time."

Singer said he would not challenge Dahl's contempt of court order against him or the $200 sanction imposed. He would not elaborate as to the nature of the emergency that kept him from court.

The defense attorney did say he was troubled by the incident, but would not go so far as to file a formal complaint about what happened.

Dahl said the next day he had Singer come back to court so they could put everything on the record with the court reporter.