Former prosecutor’s probation revoked, sentence shortened
District Judge Carolyn Ellsworth on Wednesday revoked the probation of former prosecutor David Schubert and ordered him sent him to prison on a drug conviction.
But the judge also reduced the one-time fugitive’s sentence from a maximum 40 months to 30 months and, at the request of defense lawyer Louis Schneider, recommended him for a prison substance abuse program.
“I wish I had a good feeling that you will go out and seek help,” Ellsworth told Schubert, clad in jail garb and chains. “I think you really need to do that if you want to be a productive lawyer again.”
Schubert, 49, a 10-year prosecutor, was taken into custody at the Mexican border Sept. 30 while re-entering the United States after a national law enforcement alert was put out for his arrest. He failed to surrender in court Sept. 21 to serve a nine-month jail term as part of his probation and stayed in Mexico until he was arrested at the border and jailed in San Diego.
“Your honor, he snapped and did the wrong thing,” Schneider told Ellsworth Wednesday. “The measure of a man is he returned and understood what he did.”
Schubert did not challenge the revocation proceeding.
Ellsworth also ordered Schubert to pay the state $365 for the cost of bringing him back to Las Vegas from San Diego, and she gave him 40 days credit for the time he served behind bars.
Afterward, Schneider described Ellsworth’s ruling from the bench as “awesome,” saying he was “grateful” for the way the judge handled the matter.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Thom Gover, who had sought to revoke Schubert’s probation, said Ellsworth decision was a “good resolution” to the criminal case.
Schubert, who prosecuted the drug cases of celebrities Paris Hilton and Bruno Mars, lost his job as a chief deputy district attorney after he was arrested for buying cocaine in 2011. He later pleaded guilty, and the day before he fled the country, the Nevada Supreme Court temporarily suspended him from practicing law.
On Wednesday, Ellsworth suggested that the day Schubert did not show up in court, she was misled into thinking there was reason to worry about his well-being.
She recalled being told that day that Schubert was drinking heavily and just picked up and left his girlfriend and his house.
“What I was seeing was a gentleman who was not grasping his problems,” Ellsworth said.
In reality, his girlfriend, a fellow lawyer, had driven Schubert to McCarran International Airport, where he boarded a flight to San Diego and later walked across the border to Tijuana, Mexico.
In a jailhouse interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal after his return last month, Schubert said that while in Mexico, he recognized he had made a mistake.
“I realized that this wasn’t the solution,” he said. “I didn’t want to be on the run. I missed everyone.”
He said he spent time in the coastal resort towns of Rosarito Beach and Ensenada, at the beach and in nice restaurants.
While there, a photo appeared on Schubert’s Facebook page of an empty beach with the note: “Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! All is well. Here is a present for you.”
Schubert said he posted the photo on his birthday to let his friends know he was fine and at a nice location.
In the end, however, he said he underestimated the loneliness of being a fugitive and not being able to trust anyone and decided to return to the United States to face his punishment.
He said he felt he wasn’t being treated fairly by the legal system but added, “I did what I did, and I accept the consequences.”
Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.
