Ethics panel appears to be reviewing complaint involving judicial candidate

By Steve Green

Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

The Nevada Standing Committee on Judicial Ethics and Election Practices appears to be looking into a complaint involving Las Vegas attorney and judicial candidate Joanna Kishner.

That was signaled Friday when attorneys for Kishner filed a court motion revealing plans to sue the committee.

The planned lawsuit would be a civil rights complaint involving the constitutionality of a state statute, a cover sheet to the motion says.

Attorneys for Kishner filed the motion in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas asking that Kishner be allowed to file her lawsuit, a motion for a temporary restraining order and exhibits under seal, or shielded from public view.

Kishner’s attorneys, John Bailey and Dennis Kennedy of the Las Vegas law firm Bailey Kennedy, said in the motion that the suit must be filed under seal to comply with rules of the committee.

Those rules prohibit a party to a proceeding concerning an unfair election practice complaint from making any public reference to the matter before the proceeding is concluded.

“Under Nevada law, the complaint, including all exhibits, and the plaintiff’s motion for a temporary restraining order concern a matter that is confidential,” the motion said.

Also publicly filed Friday was a notice that Kishner had filed as an exhibit a DVD of a Sept. 13 debate between Kishner and her election opponent, Las Vegas attorney Phil Dabney, on the news discussion program Face to Face With Jon Ralston.

During that debate, Kishner said that while she has an impeccable record, Dabney had been sued multiple times and was found to have violated judicial rules in a case in which a client changed her estate plan to personally benefit Dabney to the tune of a quarter million dollars.

Dabney on the show denied wrongdoing and said that a complaint over the circumstances was filed and closed and that he showed through a trust proceeding there was no undue influence on the client.

The attorneys are running for Clark County District Court Department 31.

The Standing Committee on Judicial Ethics and Election Practices says it resolves “ethical disputes arising in the course of campaigns for judicial office,” and provides judges and aspirants to judicial office advisory opinions on ethical matters that may arise in the ordinary course of judicial service, or in the elective or appointive process.