Louis Eric Johnson

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Louis Eric Johnson

Nonpartisan

Nevada 8th Judicial District Court Department 20

Tenure

2015 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

10

Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 3, 2020

Appointed

April 2, 2015

Education

Bachelor's

Emporia State University, 1980

Law

University of Kansas, School of Law, 1983

Contact

Campaign website

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Personal website

Louis Eric Johnson is a judge for Department 20 of the Nevada 8th Judicial District Court. He assumed office in 2015. His current term ends on January 4, 2027.

Johnson ran for re-election for the Department 20 judge of the Nevada 8th Judicial District Court. He won in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Johnson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Email editor@ballotpedia.org to notify us of updates to this biography.

Johnson received his undergraduate degree from Emporia State University in 1980 and his J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1983. Before his appointment to the Eighth Judicial District Court, he served worked in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) through the Attorney General's Employment Program for Honor Law. He was then a special attorney with the DOJ's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section and an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Nevada. He served for 10 years as chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force and for two years as overall chief of the state's Criminal Division.

Elections

2020

See also: Municipal elections in Clark County, Nevada (2020)

General election

General election for Nevada 8th Judicial District Court Department 20

Incumbent Louis Eric Johnson defeated Dawn Allysa Hooker in the general election for Nevada 8th Judicial District Court Department 20 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Louis Eric Johnson (Nonpartisan)	54.8	394,946
	Submit photo	Dawn Allysa Hooker (Nonpartisan)	45.2	325,928

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 720,874
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

The primary election was canceled. Incumbent Louis Eric Johnson and Dawn Allysa Hooker advanced from the primary for Nevada 8th Judicial District Court Department 20.

Endorsements

To view Johnson's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.

2016

See also: Nevada local trial court judicial elections, 2016

Nevada held general elections for local judicial offices on November 8, 2016. A primary election took place on June 14, 2016. Incumbent Louis Eric Johnson defeated Anat Levy in the Nevada Judicial District 8 general election for Department 20.

Nevada Judicial District 8 (Department 20), General Election, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Louis Eric Johnson Incumbent	56.13%	332,025
Anat Levy	43.87%	259,492
Total Votes		591,517
Source: Silver State Election Night Results 2016, "Judicial," accessed January 18, 2016

Nevada Judicial District 8 (Department 20), Primary Election, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Louis Eric Johnson Incumbent	45.18%	58,579
Anat Levy	24.30%	31,508
Catherine Ramsey	21.76%	28,210
Scott Holper	8.76%	11,359
Total Votes		129,656
Source: Nevada Secretary of State, "Official Primary Judicial Results," accessed October 19, 2016

Selection method

See also: Nonpartisan election of judges

The 72 judges of the Nevada District Courts are elected to six-year terms in nonpartisan elections. To serve additional terms, judges must run for re-election.

Each district court selects its chief judge to a two-year term by peer vote. Not every district court is required to select a chief judge; only in districts with populations over 100,000 are the courts required to choose one.

Qualifications
To serve on the Nevada District Courts, a judge must be:

• a qualified elector;
• a state resident for two years;
• a district resident;
• at least 25 years old;
• licensed and admitted to practice law in Nevada; and
• a licensed attorney for 15 years with at least two years in Nevada.

Campaign themes

2020

Video for Ballotpedia

Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released October 7, 2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Louis Eric Johnson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Johnson's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Eric Johnson is the District Judge for Department XX for the Eighth Judicial District, handling criminal and civil matters. Governor Brian Sandoval appointed him as a judge in 2015, and voters elected him in 2016.

Prior to his appointment, Judge Johnson was a Special Attorney with the Department of Justice, Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, and an Assistant United States Attorney with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada, serving 10 years as Chief of the Office's Organized Crime Strike Force and then two years as overall Chief of the Criminal Division. He has also taught Ethics and Professional Responsibility at the UNLV Boyd School of Law. During his over 30 years with the U.S. Attorney's office, Eric Johnson was twice honored as one of the nation's top prosecutors and received international commendations for his work prosecuting multi-million-dollar international money laundering operations. Judge Johnson served as one of the first four judges for the Court's Homicide Panel and was elected in 2020 as the Eighth Judicial District Court Civil/Criminal Judge Representative to the Judicial Council of the State of Nevada. He also regularly participates in graduation programs for the Hope for Prisoners reentry program.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Before my appointment to the bench, I served Nevada as a prosecutor for almost 32 years. I have handled numerous trials and cases involving murder, public corruption, terrorism, money laundering, and a broad spectrum of other matters. I have twice been named one of the nation's top prosecutors and before coming on to the bench regularly taught trial advocacy at the National Advocacy Institute. Consequently, I have a deep understanding of what litigants, witnesses and jurors experience in a trial and how important a judge is in ensuring litigation is moved forward expeditiously and fairly. Good judges are essentially for justice to be served in this process. I emphasize my trial experience because the District Court is our trial court.
• I have a deep personal understanding of how the system can impact a person and how injustice cause cause real pain to not only those involved in a contraversey but also their family and friends. Consequently, I am sensitive that being a judge in not simply being a computer where certain data is dumped in and a result comes out. Our cases affect real people with real concerns that need to be appreciated.
• I have been in Southern Nevada for the last 36 years and have grown as an attorney as the community has grown in size and complexity. Southern Nevada has become my home. I have been married for 33 years to someone who has lived in Southern Nevada since she was four and we have two wonderful daughters. We have volunteered with the school and church and watched countless sports event with the kids. This is my home and community and I have and will continue to make a meaningful contribution to the legal profession here and to my community through my position as a district court judge.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

On the civil side, the greatest obstacle to accessing equal justice is the inability of low and moderate income Nevadans to obtain legal representation or to adequately represent themselves in the courtroom in such matters. The Court has taken the initiative in expanding the services of its Self-Help Center for self-represented litigants and through working with the State Bar to encourage greater pro bono work from the legal community. On the criminal side, I believe the Court needs to take concrete action to improve and standardize the criminal jury instructions. The current instructions are antiquated and difficult for modern jurors to understand and appreciate what they must find to convict a defendant. I have found several ethnic groups within our community are concerned about possible sentencing disparity. The Court needs to review sentences between judges for various criminal conduct to better ensure consistency into the future. The Court needs to also evaluate through a study or observation, the effectiveness of the Clerk's Office in summoning jury voir dire panels as representative of the community. Many of these same groups also seek bail reform to better ensure bail and pretrial detention is used for ensuring the defendant's appearance and limiting a defendant's potential danger to the community. The Court has implemented a fact basis bail scoring system, but the Court can take other steps to ensure the bail system is not used to punish before conviction.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

My father and mother were the major influences of my life. My father, Dick Johnson, instilled in me the principle that one should always do what he believed was right, regardless of the cost or personal implications. He was deeply committed to his family and protecting them. I always remember my mom commenting on how she thought it was sad that a friend had divorced his wife who had gone into a mental health facility and her plainly stating to me that my father would never do that. He also taught me to explore the world and appreciate all it had to offer with camping vacations throughout the United States. My mother, Grace Johnson, was self-less. I remember her staying up to 4:00 a.m. to type my French final paper in high school and having to deal with not knowing how to spell the words. My memory of her kept me going with our younger daughter many late nights as we often struggled with school. Their hopes for me caused me to have the dedication to go into law and public service.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

First, I believe that I have the judgment to be a good judge. I think my ability to learn, analyze and apply various areas of the law, combined with my ability to step outside my own paradigm to look at situations from the perspective of each party to litigation and appreciate their motivations and goals, give me the judgment to apply the law to reach a proper and fair resolution of a controversy.

Second, I have a deep personal understanding of how the system can impact a person and how injustice cause real pain to not only those involved in a controversy but also their family and friends. Consequently, I am sensitive that being a judge in not simply being a computer where certain data is dumped in and a result comes out. Our cases affect real people with real concerns that need to be appreciated.

Finally, I have the decisiveness to be a judge. In legal cases decisions must be made. The parties deserve that and the public which ultimately finances our justice system expect that. I can work hard to reach the best decision I believe possible and then make that decision.

What legacy would you like to leave?

A fair judge who properly applied the law, moved his cases, and pushed them to trial, and who along the way aided in the development of law and legal procedure in the state.

How would you describe your legal philosophy?

I view my responsibility as a judge to apply the law fairly and evenly to all the parties in a case, considering their legitimate interests, goals and motives to the extent the law allows, and, whenever possible, to assist in bringing the parties together to reach a joint resolution to a matter. In interpreting statutes and the constitution I view myself as a constructivist. The Nevada Constitution and statutes should be construed in their ordinary sense unless some apparent absurdity or unmistakable interest of their framers forbids such construction. Consequently, where the language in the Nevada Constitution or statute is plain and not ambiguous, it should be read in those plain and unambiguous terms.

Do you believe that empathy is an important quality for a judge?

For the last 37 years as a prosecutor and as a judge, I have handled and tried numerous civil and criminal cases. I have dealt with victims of crime, the many diverse cultures of our community and every agency and businesses. I appreciate how our justice system affects the lives of litigants and their families and friends. I am sensitive that being a judge in not simply being a computer where certain data is dumped in and a result comes out. Our cases affect real people with real concerns that need to be appreciated.

Why are you running for this particular court seat?

I have enjoyed helping people resolve their differences. I also receive satisfaction in ensuring our Court and judges work efficiently and ensure litigants receive their day in court. Since coming onto the bench, I have handled numerous criminal and civil trials, including several complex trials involving hundreds of millions in claimed damages and first degree murder cases. I feel my experiences in dealing with complex litigation on the federal, state and local levels both as a prosecutor and a judge have trained me in applying the law and handling litigation at all levels.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Candidate

Nevada 8th Judicial District Court Department 20

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Footnotes

Nevada courts

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Federal courts:

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Nevada • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Nevada

State courts:

Nevada Supreme Court • Nevada Court of Appeals • Nevada District Courts • Nevada Justice Courts • Nevada Municipal Courts • Clark County Family Court, Nevada

State resources:

Courts in Nevada • Nevada judicial elections • Judicial selection in Nevada