Suspended judge can’t even get out of jury duty

By Jeff German (contact)

Saturday, May 17, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Suspended District Judge Elizabeth Halverson returned to the Regional Justice Center on Friday — for jury duty.

While waiting for an assignment, Halverson, who can’t roll through the courthouse on her motorized scooter without attracting attention, turned quite a few heads, including those of several prosecutors at the district attorney’s office, which is on the same floor as the jury service room.

Halverson, according to courthouse officials, had been assigned to a civil trial that ended up being postponed, bringing an abrupt halt to her brief public service on the other side of the bench.

She reportedly then “held court,” in the colloquial sense, outside the building while waiting for her ride.

The 2005 Legislature tightened the rules for excuses to jury service, forcing judges and other public officials, suspended or not, to comply with a jury summons like any other citizen.

Halverson has a weeklong hearing before the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission slated to begin June 9 stemming from a 14-count complaint accusing her of improper judicial conduct, including sexual harassment and sleeping on the bench. She’s also running for reelection while waging a court battle claiming that her term should not be expiring this year.

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The government could move a step closer to ridding itself of the Crazy Horse Too when the City Council votes Wednesday on whether to grant a temporary liquor license to two South Carolina businessmen looking to buy the long-closed topless club for more than $30 million.

The city’s business license department has recommended approval while Metro Police conduct a background investigation of the buyers for a permanent license.

David Dupont, who runs a mortgage company in Myrtle Beach, S.C., is listed in city records as having a 76 percent interest in LLC Cafe Nevada, a company put together to acquire the Crazy Horse Too. The other partner, with a 24 percent interest, is Mahesh Patel, who owns several strip clubs in North Carolina and West Virginia.

If Dupont and Patel get their temporary license, they’ll have to put down more than $2.5 million in nonrefundable earnest money, according to Geoffrey West, an executive with CB Richard Ellis, the real estate company that was hired six months ago to market the club.

Wednesday’s vote can’t come soon enough for West and the U.S. Marshals Service.

There seem to be plenty of people out there who don’t want to see the Crazy Horse reopen, West complained.

“A lot of misinformation is being put out to try to kill the deal,” he said. “But this buyer remains committed and is moving forward.”

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There is tension elsewhere on the Crazy Horse Too front.

A dispute has intensified between two prior allies in the case, federal prosecutors and lawyers for a Kansas City-area man who suffered a broken neck at the club.

The rift involves the distribution of the millions of dollars in proceeds from the club’s pending sale.

In federal court papers filed this week, Las Vegas lawyers Stan Hunterton and Don Campbell criticized prosecutors for giving a higher priority to the interest of a bank trying to collect a $5 million loan it made to former Crazy Horse Too owner Rick Rizzolo.

Hunterton and Campbell represent Kirk Henry and his wife, Amy. Henry has been paralyzed since September 2001, when he was injured in a fight with Crazy Horse Too employees.

The couple’s attorneys, both former federal prosecutors, said they were baffled by the government’s insistence in its latest filings that Security Pacific Bank get its $5 million plus interest and attorneys fees before the Henrys get the $9 million plus interest Rizzolo owes them.

The attorneys said they don’t understand why the government would give credibility to a “reckless” and “negligent” loan to “one of the most infamous gangsters in the history of Las Vegas.”

At the time of his sentencing more than 15 months ago, Rizzolo was ordered to pay the Henrys a total of $10 million. Since then, while serving a 366-day prison term for tax evasion, he has paid the couple $1 million through his insurance.

There is a bright side here.

If the Crazy Horse Too ends up selling for more than $30 million, as is expected, this nasty rhetoric will subside. There will be plenty of money to go around for all of Rizzolo’s creditors.