Not guilty plea entered in Henderson city attorney DUI case
Henderson City Attorney Elizabeth Quillin had 3½ times the legal limit of alcohol in her system when she was arrested on a drunken driving charge May 23, according to information presented at her arraignment Monday.
L.J. O’Neale, the special prosecutor in the case, said Quillin’s blood-alcohol level was 0.281 percent at the time of her arrest. The legal limit is 0.08 percent.
Quillin did not appear in person in Henderson Municipal Court, but her attorneys entered a not guilty plea on her behalf.
One of her attorneys, William Terry, said Quillin remains in an alcohol treatment program.
Judge D. Lanny Waite, from the Moapa Valley Justice Court, ordered that within two days of her release from treatment, she will have to wear an ankle bracelet that will detect any alcohol use.
She has been ordered to refrain from using alcohol until after her trial, which is scheduled for
Sept. 27.
Henderson police said Quillin admitted to drinking “bottles” of wine before she crashed her Lexus and then nearly ran over a woman who stopped to help her.
The crash occurred in the middle of the workday at Paseo Verde Parkway and Carnegie Street, west of Green Valley Parkway.
Police said the 51-year-old Quillin was booked into the Henderson jail after failing a field sobriety test and telling officers, “Yes, I am (expletive) up.”
She faces charges of drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident and having an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle, all misdemeanors.
She was initially placed on paid administrative leave, but Henderson spokesman Bud Cranor said Quillin is now using her own sick leave and vacation time.
Cranor said the change was made in response to a statement Quillin issued the day after her arrest in which she announced she would seek “immediate treatment from an inpatient facility.”
He said Quillin has about a month and a half of sick leave and vacation left, after which the city will have to re-evaluate her status.
The attorney won’t be placed back on paid leave until she notifies the city that she is ready to return to work, Cranor said.
Quillin is paid a base salary of $190,000 a year. She does not receive a car allowance or have her own city vehicle to drive.
When asked whether the city intends to wait for the criminal case to be decided before taking any action against Quillin, Cranor said that he could not speculate on the timeline but that nothing can be done while she is in treatment.
“She’s unavailable right now for us to have those discussions with her,” he said.
Quillin joined the legal staff of Nevada’s second-largest city in 2007 after stints as an assistant county manager for Clark County and as the chief deputy attorney general for Southern Nevada.
The City Council appointed her city attorney in June 2009.
Waite began Monday’s court hearing by rejecting a motion from Quillin’s attorneys to have the judge removed from the case on procedural grounds.
O’Neale, who was assigned to the case by the Clark County district attorney’s office, argued for the ankle bracelet for Quillin on the grounds that someone arrested with such a high blood-alcohol level can pose a danger to the public, even after treatment.
Terry called the device “humiliating” and unnecessary because his client is “an officer of the court” and would abide by the order to refrain from drinking.
Waite said that as an officer of the court, Quillin should not have gotten into trouble with the law to begin with.
Anthem residents Nelson Orth and Tim Stebbins were the only audience members at Monday’s arraignment. They said “curiosity” had drawn them there.
Stebbins thinks Quillin received preferential treatment when she was released from the Henderson jail on her own recognizance about 3 a.m. May 24, 12 hours after her arrest.
“Someone got a judge up in the middle of the night. Someone got her off the hook for free,” Stebbins said. “If it had been you or me, I don’t think we’d get the same treatment.”
Court officials have said there was nothing unusual about Quillin’s release.
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.
