Judge not, that ye be not judged

Judge not, that ye be not judged

This year’s ‘assemblage’ of judicial candidates in Washoe County, City of Reno, and City of Sparks contain only two in private practice: Justin Champagne and Henry Sotelo.  Another, in a some-what retired state, is former Justice Court Judge Pete Sferrazza. ALL of the remaining candidates work for either a state, city or county agency.

Running for office, about 50% of ‘candidate’ gatherings you’ll want to participate in, take place between 9 a.m. 5 p.m., so harkening back to Dolly Parton’s 1980 song we reached out to make sure that each were ‘working 9-5’ for the taxpayers, who pay their salaries. Picon wanted to verify the candidates are not running their campaigns on taxpayer dollars.

Picon sent out an email asking each of the candidates how they account for their time while campaigning and we got responses from Bruce Hahn and Sparks Municipal Court Judge Shirle Eiting. Mr. Hahn and Judge Eiting are transparent with their time.

The other candidates not so much, since none of them choose to respond to our question – we don’t find that transparent. Here are the candidates who failed to respond:

·        Kendra Bertschy works for the Washoe County Public Defender as a criminal defense attorney

·        Matt Lee works for the Washoe County District Attorney’s office as the chief deputy district attorney

·        Erica Flavin works for the Washoe County Public Defender office as deputy public defender

·        Robert Delong works for the Washoe County District Attorney’s office as a deputy district attorney

·        Reno Muni Court Judge Chris Hazlett-Stephens works for the City of Reno

The candidates working for the public defender and district attorney clearly state on their campaign website’s they are public servants working for us.  Let’s remember they are public servants running campaigns on taxpayers’ dollars, not accounting for their ‘work’ hours vs ‘campaign’ hours.

The District Attorney and Public Defender’s offices have lost employees, are understaffed and one could ask are we, taxpayers, being underserved?  Picon reached out to Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks and Washoe County Public Defender John Arrascada for comment, and we got none.

Since we couldn’t get an answer from the candidates or their bosses, we began asking others in the legal profession about accounting for time during an election and unearthed a couple of interesting comments:

Henry Sotelo has been sending out a handwritten letter to campaign donors requesting they ‘match’ the amount that was donated to his opponent, Judge Chris Hazlett-Stephens. It seems like a bit of a shake-down pointing out how much money was given to the opposing candidate and urging the same should be given to Mr. Sotelo’s campaign. Is this ethical for a judge, because isn’t Mr. Sotelo a judge pro-tem for municipal court currently?

Judge Hazlett-Stephens is working closely with Washoe County Recorder Kalie Work and her husband, Matt Work, is a local attorney.  Hazlett-Stephens has had a fundraiser at the Work’s home. Does it give a local attorney more power to be perceived as a ‘judgemaker’?

Kendra Bertschy running for Justice court, touts herself as ‘kendraforjustice’ took a $6,000 donation, wait no, her amended C&E reflects, $600 from Max Haynes the gentleman who is a Montessori Board Trustee along with being the Director of Private Investment at Alpen Mortgage and was fined because he had someone else take his continuing education for his mortgage license renewal.  This reminds us of the college admissions scandal from a few years ago where wealthy parents were paying people to doctor test scores and faking athletic credentials. Mr. Haynes didn’t have time to take his own continuing education? Our Town Reno broke the story in August, 2022. You might be asking, “Picon why the story this is old news.” The reason we have been ‘holding’ this story is to be fair to Ms. Bertschy and allow her the October 15, 2022, Nevada Secretary of State Contribution and Expense reporting period to see if she refunded Mr. Haynes money. She did not. We can only conclude that Ms. Bertschy is okay with ‘I’ll let someone else do my homework’ sanctioned contributor.

Why are we writing this? Alan Dershowitz, famed criminal defense lawyer said, “Judges are the weakest link in our system of justice, and they are also the most protected.” We think the individuals elected to our judicial seats should be beyond reproach and are asking the question, “Should some of these candidates be in a black robe?”

 *Photo of Alan Dershowitz courtesy of The Daily Beast.