Lawyer asks state’s high court to throw out … judge

By Jeff German

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 | 2 a.m.

A Las Vegas attorney has asked the Nevada Supreme Court to consider removing Family Court Judge Robert Teuton from the bench.

Robert Lueck contends that under the Nevada Constitution, Teuton’s August appointment expired Jan. 5 because he didn’t run in the November general election.

But top state officials — including Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, Secretary of State Ross Miller and lawyers for Gov. Jim Gibbons, who made the appointment — don’t share that opinion.

They contend Teuton was unable to run in November because he was appointed too late, by law, to get his name on the November ballot. Therefore, his term expires in January 2011 following the November 2010 general election.

Lueck, a former Family Court judge who competed with Teuton for the appointment, wants the Supreme Court to clear up this dispute over the appointment process.

Many within the legal community have questioned whether Teuton has legal authority to remain on the bench, but no one has been willing to step forward to challenge that authority, Lueck says in his filing.

“There is no other way by which this very serious constitutional question can be raised,” he adds.

Lueck says he believes that all legal decisions by Teuton after Jan. 5 are void.

“This has the potential effect of invalidating potentially numerous court orders, judgments and decrees, and would require that the proceedings be conducted again by another judge lawfully in office,” he writes.

The Legislature is considering a constitutional amendment this session, Senate Joint Resolution 2, that, among other things, would make it clear when newly appointed judges must first run for election.

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Southern Nevada law enforcement authorities have received word that a man alleged to be one of the valley’s biggest deadbeat gamblers has been arrested in Canada in a check fraud and money laundering investigation.

Toronto gambler Semion Kronenfeld, 38, faces felony charges here stemming from gambling markers he received last year. Authorities allege he owes Green Valley Ranch Station $5 million and the Venetian $7.9 million.

Kronenfeld, who also spells his last name Cronenfeld, was charged Friday in Las Vegas Justice Court with theft and obtaining money under false pretenses related to his Venetian debts.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Bernie Zadrowski, who runs the bad check unit, says local authorities won’t be able to get their hands on Kronenfeld unless he returns to the U.S.

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Serious health problems have forced District Judge Allan Earl off the massive endoscopy litigation, at least temporarily. Earl is to undergo surgery Thursday in California for a quadruple heart bypass and a valve replacement.

District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez was assigned Tuesday to take over Earl’s duties of coordinating the endoscopy cases for the next two to three months.

In her first ruling at a hearing Tuesday, she made the plaintiffs’ lawyers happy, ordering the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada to turn over a confidential report of an inspection of the clinic done by Quality Care Consultants.

The endoscopy center had withheld the report from the plaintiffs under a protective order signed by Earl.

The center paid Quality Care Consultants, run by high-powered physicians Ikram Khan and Javaid Anwar, $35,000 to review its procedures before last year’s hepatitis outbreak at the center. The consulting firm is a defendant in the endoscopy litigation.

• • •

It may be no coincidence that a Red Bull vending machine has been installed outside jury services on the third floor of the Regional Justice Center.

That’s where prospective jurors wait, sometimes for long periods, to learn their assignments.

A machine selling the energy drink also was installed on the well-traveled fourth floor of the courthouse, the home of alternative sentencing.

Jeff German is the Sun’s senior investigative reporter.