Clerk’s error blamed in permit being issued to man convicted of DUI

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005 | 10:36 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Officials on Monday blamed a District Court clerk for the mistake that allowed a man convicted of a fatal DUI to get a permit to drive before he would normally be allowed to under state law.

This morning the state was to ask District Judge John McGroarty to revoke the permit it issued to 44-year-old James Yach, who was convicted of drunken driving, causing the death of 51-year-old James Michael Hastings in 1995.

Yach served 8 1/2 years in prison and was released on Aug. 4. On Aug. 8, he received a learner's permit for a driver's license from the Department of Motor Vehicles. Under Nevada law, any person convicted of either felony DUI involving death or a third DUI is supposed to be prohibited from obtaining any type of driver's license for three years after being released from prison.

Whenever someone is convicted of a fatal DUI in Clark County, the court clerk is supposed to send notice of the conviction to the DMV so that it can be entered into the DMV computer database. That database is designed to prevent the issuance of licenses to ineligible applicants. Bruce Nelson of the Clark County district attorney's office said there is no record to show the court clerk transmitted the information to the state after Yach was sentenced in 1996.

Asked how the DMV knows when a prisoner is released, department spokesman Tom Jacobs said the prison system is supposed to notify the district court and the court in turn is supposed to notify the DMV. The DMV then enters the information in its data bank. Jacobs said there "is no record of that conviction in 1995, and we're confident we never received it because they are priority documents."

Jacobs said the records of convictions are entered immediately into the computer and there is no backlog.

Nelson said he would ask the judge to order the conviction notice to be immediately sent to the state, Jacobs said.

"If they forward the DUI conviction, we will take action," meaning that the learner's permit will probably be revoked.

Jacobs said Yach would have a right to appeal any action taken by the DMV. Yach has an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment.

When Yach was convicted, the state law said a person could receive a driver's license three years after he was convicted of a fatal DUI or a third-time DUI. The law was later changed to require a three-year wait after the sentence is served.

Yach could argue that he is covered by the prior law and has already served his three-year waiting period. Nelson said that in a prior court hearing, McGroarty ordered a representative of the court clerk's office to appear at today's hearing to explain whether a notice was sent, and if not, the reason it wasn't sent. Nelson said the person responsible for sending the notices in the past may no longer be an employee of the court clerk's office.

Yach also has been a figure in another investigation, this one regarding good time credits and the early release of prisoners. Yach was released from prison early along with more than 100 other inmates. He was sentenced to five to 20 years in prison and the Parole Board denied his release Feb. 17 this year. But between then and when he was released in August, he was granted enough additional good time credits to be released from prison.

Gov. Kenny Guinn ordered investigators to determine whether the granting of good time credits to Yach and the other inmates violated prison policy.

Prison Director Jackie Crawford said she approved additional credits for Yach because he had been denied credits due him. She called him a model prisoner.

Crawford denied Yach received any special treatment because his father, Gordon Yach, was the former chief of the Clark County Detention Center.