Report pans Halverson

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Bailiff Johnny Jordan made District Judge Elizabeth Halverson’s ice water just right.

But getting it to the correct temperature through the perfect ratio of ice to water was one of the judge’s lesser demands, according to a human resources report released to the public Wednesday.

Jordan said Halverson made him feel like a "house boy," according to the report.

Halverson, who uses a motorized wheelchair, had Jordan put her shoes on for her, rub her feet and give her back massages.

He had to make sure her oxygen tank was filled appropriately and was required to clean the floors of her chamber when it was littered with sunflower seeds and cookie crumbs.

"Johnny is ordered to cover her up with a blanket when she lies down," the report states.

Halverson’s mother asked her once, "Is he your servant?"

Halverson had asked Jordan, "Do you want to worship me from near or afar?"

He and other former staffers said Halverson demeaned her staff daily and created a hostile work environment that affected the health of at least two staff members.

And that’s just part of the very unflattering picture painted in affidavits, memos and interviews with human resources included in Chief Judge Kathy Hardcastle’s response to the lawsuit Halverson filed against her last week. Halverson wants the Nevada Supreme Court to reverse measures Hardcastle has taken against her since April.

The justices will review Hardcastle’s response and decide whether to have a hearing on Halverson’s allegation that Hardcastle overstepped her authority.

In her filing, Hardcastle told the justices she was forced to take action for numerous reasons, including Halverson’s "seemingly volatile, angry, paranoid and bizarre behavior toward staff."

According to documents included in the response, Halverson called her court clerk "evil one" and "Anti-Christ." She called her judicial executive assistant "an idiot," called a lawyer "a liar," referred to bailiffs as "bitches," called her husband derogatory names in front of staff and answered her phone pretending to be her law clerk.

At one point during an April 6 meeting between Halverson and a panel of veteran judges Hardcastle had asked to give Halverson guidance, Judge Sally Loehrer recommended Halverson seek professional help to understand how she treats people. Halverson stated she was considering a business coach to communicate better.

"Judge Halverson is re-directed to consider the help of either a psychiatrist or a psychologist," the human resources report stated.

In District Judge Stewart Bell’s affidavit, one of the many attachments submitted by Hardcastle to the state’s high court, Bell wrote that courthouse staff had "made allegations which, if sustained, would amount to violations of law, county policy and union contracts. We believed that we had a duty to take immediate action to protect Judge Halverson and bailiff Jordan as well as to protect the county from potential future liability."

Hardcastle told the justices that people who work at the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas "simply had no idea how far she was willing to carry her conduct. In light of the numerous other complaints regarding her behavior, there were legitimate concerns about the safety of those in the Courthouse."

Through her spokeswoman, Halverson declined to comment for this article. Halverson’s attorney had not yet read Hardcastle’s filing late Wednesday and chose not to comment.

In addition to requiring that Halverson to seek guidance from a panel of veteran judges, Hardcastle took Halverson’s criminal cases away from her.

On May 11, she barred Halverson from the Regional Justice Center after learning she put courthouse security at risk when she violated security protocols and brought in two bodyguards to secured areas of the courthouse. After Halverson filed her writ, the state Supreme Court ruled on May 17 that Halverson could return to work provided she followed the courthouse’s security rules.

"The only thing we ever wanted was for her to meet with the committee (of judges) to address the security concerns and the various issues," Hardcastle said Wednesday. "That’s all we want. These are critical issues. They need to be addressed. She needs to be willing to address them."

In her writ, Halverson has said she needed private bodyguards after courthouse officials removed Jordan from her courtroom, whom she said did not want to leave.

But the human resources report and affidavits signed by judges tell a different story: Jordan has filed a discrimination complaint against Halverson and cannot be replaced until that complaint is resolved, court officials said.

Halverson has argued Hardcastle has a vendetta against her.

After being a District Court law clerk for nine years, Halverson was fired in 2004 by Hardcastle, who said the position is supposed to be temporary.

Halverson then ran against Hardcastle’s husband for a family court judgeship. She lost, started her own firm and then won election to the department 23 District Court bench in November.

Because Halverson had virtually no trial experience, Hardcastle asked her to meet with veteran judges when complaints about Halverson’s performance from attorneys began to arise, the chief judge said.

Hardcastle has argued that the state Supreme Court has deemed her position to be that of a "strong chief judge" with wide-ranging authority. In her response to Halverson’s writ, Hardcastle and the state attorney general representing her argue Hardcastle supervises the court administration, which handles court security. She also has the duty to adopt regulations necessary to provide for the orderly conduct of the court.

Halverson "is very disruptive on the court and has an effect on courthouse morale," Hardcastle said.

But Halverson and her lawyers, Bill Gamage and Dominic Gentile, have said Hardcastle has no authority to punish judges, which is what the chief judge has done by prohibiting her from performing her elected duties and taking her caseload. Only the state Commission on Judicial Discipline can take punitive measures against her.

After the April 6 meeting with Halverson’s staff, the three veteran judges, Bell, Loehrer and Art Ritchie, met with Halverson.

In the affidavit Halverson filed with the Nevada Supreme Court, she recalls that, "The judges proceeded to berate me stating that charges would be brought with judicial discipline, that I would be removed from the bench."

Bell’s statement said they simply tried to warn Halverson that the judicial discipline commission could remove her — but she wouldn’t listen.

Problems with her court continued and a meeting with the veteran judges was scheduled for April 12, Bell said. They waited two hours for Halverson, who did not show. When the judges realized no mentoring was going to take place they recommended Hardcastle take Halverson’s criminal cases away and give her only civil cases.

The report the judges gave to Hardcastle cited performance issues, such as "talking directly to deliberating juries, restructuring criminal trial settings to make performance for the district attorney’s office and public defender’s office nearly impossible, sleeping in court, etc."

Her staff also complained their duties included keeping Halverson awake in court.

Rumors circulated throughout the courthouse that Halverson had fallen asleep on the bench during her first criminal trial. She told the Review-Journal that she had been taking an allergy medication because the lighting in the courtroom gave her headaches. She said the medication made her "zone out" briefly but she hadn’t missed any part of the trial.

"The judge was not taking new medication," her former court clerk Kathy Streuber wrote in a memo to court officials. "She had stayed up late the night before doing her own briefs, as she stated her law clerk, Lisa Carroll, was worthless and didn’t know what she was doing."

Her former staff members also complained that Halverson was paranoid of court administration. Halverson was afraid Hardcastle was spying on her through the court audio and visual recording system, they said.

Shortly after taking office, Halverson had Streuber, swear in her judicial executive assistant, Ileen Spoor.

Spoor had previously been an assistant to District Judge Michael Cherry. Halverson asked her, under oath, when the last time she spoke to the now supreme court judge and whether she made any mean remarks about Halverson to him, according to Hardcastle’s filing.

That same day, Halverson had Streuber swear in Halverson’s husband so Halverson could ask him, under oath, whether he had adequately cleaned their house for her mother’s upcoming visit, Streuber noted to court officials.

Streuber requested and received a transfer and is still employed in the courthouse.

Halverson’s prior court recorder, Richard Kangas, who also asked for a transferred from her department, said Halverson is brilliant and will be a great asset to the bench. But he also said her treatment of people is horrible, according to the human resources report. Kangas said Halverson would make inappropriate comments that he had to record as part of the record and she tried to get him to take those statements out of the record on more than one occasion, which he could not do.

Kangas is now working for newly appointed District Judge David Barker.

Halverson fired Spoor May 8. She is now employed by the county as a roving assistant. Carroll has resigned her position and no longer works at the courthouse.

As for Jordan, he did not provide an affidavit for Hardcastle’s response because he has been hospitalized for reasons that court officials declined to disclose.