Judge’s property gets a look from Metro, county officials

Sam Skolnik

Friday, March 9, 2007 | 7 a.m.

The property of newly elected District Judge Elizabeth Halverson was searched by a team of Metro Police and Clark County employees this week, escalating the county's campaign to force her to clean up her front and back yards.

According to county officials, a "task force" of three Metro officers, three county code enforcement officers, two animal control officers and one firefighter served the warrant Tuesday morning.

The original public nuisance complaint about random trash and debris found on Halverson's lawn near Tropicana Avenue and U.S. 95, came in to the county's public response office in November.

The search this week was necessary, county officials said, because they discovered what they termed potentially dangerous items on her property, including a carport erected too close to her one-story home, without a fire wall. Her back yard pool has allegedly become so clogged with algae that it was "more black than green," one official said, and was a growing public health risk.

The pool is clean and the carport is not a fire hazard, Halverson said Thursday.

After conducting an initial investigation, county officials filed a civil abatement notice. Halverson, who uses a wheelchair, appealed, claiming that the county's assertions are unspecific, and that she didn't know which items are in violation and need to be removed from her lawn.

Halverson capitalized each word in her Jan. 7 appeal, a copy of which was obtained by the Sun.

"In This Statement What Is An Unsafe Structure?" the judge wrote. "How Can A Property Owner Change Anything When Said Owner Has No Idea What Is A Violation?"

The judge also argued she unfairly could not confront the person who made the initial complaint to the county, and that her First Amendment rights were being violated as the selective enforcement of the county code against her violated rights of "political speech."

Halverson did not show up for her Feb. 6 appeal hearing, which was her chance to explain why she had not cleaned up her property to county specifications.

The hearing went on anyway, Clark County Zoning Administrator Chuck Pulsipher said.

The county subsequently asked for a search warrant, officials said, because new information gave them reason to believe the potentially dangerous items were sitting on Halverson's property.

E-mails from top Clark County officials obtained by the Sun confirm that the county has had previous issues with Halverson and her property.

According to a Jan. 10 e-mail from Deputy District Attorney Steven Sweikert to District Attorney David Roger, "It turns out that this is the third case (that the county's public response office) has had with the property."

Acting Chief District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez signed the search warrant on March 1. In the warrant's return, which became publicly available Thursday afternoon, Don Coburn, a county code enforcement officer, wrote that no items were seized. Instead, video and several photographs were taken to document the county's case.

Halverson had been given many chances to clean up her property after the public response office received the anonymous complaint on Nov. 28.

According to an e-mail from Coburn to several county officials, officers conducted their first inspection of the property on Nov. 29. A violation notice was sent soon thereafter.

On Dec. 20 a second inspection of the property was made, with "very little change" noticed. The next day, an abatement notice was sent to Halverson.

Coburn said in the e-mail that his initial inspection found "an accumulation of junk, trash and debris, and campaign signs stacked on the lawn. There was a golf cart and a utility trailer parked on the grass, unlicensed inoperable motorcycle in the driveway."

In fact, Coburn sent Halverson a letter on Jan. 17 detailing 23 alleged county code violations.

On Feb. 21 Pulsipher sent a letter to Halverson explaining that the initial proceeding against her was dropped with no civil penalties assessed to her - but that future penalties could be issued and a new abatement notice filed "if necessary, to address the nuisance activities remaining on your property."

Halverson said Thursday that she thought the issues with the county had been cleared up. Much of the debris had been cleared away, she said, and her husband had mowed the lawn.

She also said some of the photos used by the county to obtain the warrant were outdated - that debris had been cleared up by the time the warrant was obtained.

"I'm concerned about the ethics of all this," Halverson said. "They knew those things had been abated."

Halverson said that with limited mobility - she has only limited use of her feet and legs - and a husband who doesn't do what she asks of him, it has been difficult to live up to every single county decree.

"The truth is this is a poor neighborhood, and I'm not a wealthy person," Halverson said. "And, I have my own medical issues. So, I try my best."

Because of the potentially dangerous items, county officials said, they are likely to start from scratch, with a new abatement notice likely to be sent to Halverson soon.

Joe Boteilho, the county's chief code enforcement official, declined to comment other than to say that "there is an ongoing investigation, and we're looking at all the information."

Halverson could be issued civil penalties of as much as $10,000. Plus, she also could be charged the contractor's costs for an abatement of the property, fees that could affect assessment on her property taxes.

Halverson, a former District Court law clerk, was elected in November to her first term as a judge. She beat her opponent by less than 1 percentage point.