Kathy Hardcastle

Kathy Hardcastle
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Former Judge
Nevada Eighth Judicial District Court
Department 4
Tenure
1997-2012
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Kathy Hardcastle was the Chief Judge of Nevada's 8th District Court overseeing Clark County. She took office on January 6, 1997 and retired on April 13, 2012. She is known for her role in suspending Judge Elizabeth Halverson who is currently facing the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline over judicial misconduct.

Legal Experience

After serving a judicial clerkship in Reno, Judge Hardcastle became a Washoe County Deputy District Attorney, also serving as counsel for the State Bar of Nevada. She became a Deputy Attorney General in Las Vegas in 1983. While working in this position, she was also in charge of the Insurance Fraud Unit (prosecuting major insurance fraud cases by the State of Nevada). She has served as legal counsel for the Nevada Equal Rights Commission, the Nevada State Board of Architecture and the Southern Nevada mental health agencies. In 1988, she left the Attorney General's Office and became a private practice of lawyer. She was a Deputy Public Defender in Las Vegas from 1991 until taking the bench in 1997.

Judicial survey

The Las Vegas Review‐Journal performed a survey of attorneys with first-hand knowledge of state judges in 2010. Of 796 survey respondents, 54% said that they would not recommend Judge Hardcastle for retention to the court.

Other Professional Affiliations

Judge Hardcastle has taught many business and law classes at various institutions. She also served on the Board of Directors and as Chair of the Nominating Committee for the Frontier Girl Scouts Council and is still very active in community affairs.

Elizabeth Halverson Suspension

On May 10, 2007 on the basis of safety and security concerns Chief Judge Kathy Hardcastle issued a order to bar Judge Elizabeth Halverson from reentering the Regional Justice Center until further notice. In addition, Stephen Fortune and Nickolas Starling who were Halverson's personal bodyguards were named in the order and have been similarly barred from the courthouse.

The action follows disruptive behavior and conduct by Judge Halverson, which compromised courthouse security. Halverson's personal security guards Starling and Fortune, acting on behalf of Halverson, prevented Clark County Courts Bailiffs from investigating a security threat alleged to have been made against Judge Halverson on May 9, 2007 following a 911 call made by Judge Halverson. In addition, Judge Halverson provided her private and on-duty employees, Starling and Fortune, access to secured judicial areas and escorted them through courthouse security without obtaining the necessary background checks and fingerprinting required of all Clark County Courts employees.

Since taking the bench in January 2007, Judge Halverson has indicated her distress, made multiple claims that court employees are acting against her wishes, and repeated claims that she cannot trust anyone in the courthouse.

Based upon concerns for the safety of all judges and employees of the Regional Justice Center, Chief Judge Hardcastle determined it was necessary to prohibit Halverson, Starling and Fortune from entering the Regional Justice Center until Judge Halverson agreed to meet with the Judicial Executive Committee to discuss security issues and provide assurances that disruptive behavior and threats to courthouse security will no longer continue.

Judge Halverson notified the District Court Wednesday (May 9) that she had employed Starling and Fortune as her private bodyguards. This decision came in response to the reassignment of her bailiff Johnnie King to another assignment within the court. Subsequently, Judge Halverson notified the District Court on May 9th, 2007 that she intended to hire Starling as a judicial executive assistant and Fortune as a judicial bailiff. Clark County standards will require both individuals to submit an application, complete a background check and be fingerprinted. In addition, prospective bailiffs have one year to show they have completed police officer standards training (POST) and they also must pass a weapons certification test before they are allowed to carry a firearm.

In April 2007, Johnnie Jordan the bailiff hired by Judge Halverson to serve as her judicial bailiff filed a complaint with Clark County's Office of Diversity. Federal law prevents the judge or the District Court from taking any punitive actions against the employee and preserves his status as an at-will employee during an internal investigation. Consequently, Jordan was reassigned to protect his rights as an employee pending the investigation. In the interim before Jordan's resignation, administrative bailiffs were assigned to Judge Halverson to serve as her active judicial bailiff. Typically, judicial bailiffs escort judges to and from their cars, when entering the courthouse and they maintain decorum in the courtroom.

Judge Halverson refused the services of administrative bailiffs except for maintaining decorum in her courtroom and at no point did Judge Halverson consulted with building security, the Judge Halverson or the Executive Committee of her alleged security needs. In addition, court security at the time of Halverson's suspension was unaware of the judge hiring any private security to protect her while on the bench due to any perceived safety concerns.

Additional judicial security was not authorized by Judge Hardcastle and private bodyguards are not required to ensure safety within the Regional Justice Center which is considered a high security environment and has protocols to ensure the safety of all judges and individuals working in the building. Hardcastle also ruled that Judge Halverson's actions of hiring two body guards, escorting them through security and violating security protocols ultimately placed everyone in the building at risk and forced Hardcastle to make the decision to bar her from the courtroom.

Halverson's Judicial Disicipline Hearing

On August 5, 2008, Judge Hardcastle was subpoenaed by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline as a prosecution witness against Elizabeth Halverson as one of more than a dozen witnesses the prosecution plans to call.. As Hardcastle spent four-and-a-half hours testifying, she became aware of the problems in Judge Halverson's courtroom about a month-and-a-half after Halverson took the bench in mid-February of 2007. Judge Hardcastle had heard complaints made by Halverson's staff and took action in April of 2007 by filing a formal complaint against Halverson which promted Hardcastle to suspend Halverson in May of 2007.

During testimony with the prosecution, Hardcastle stated that Judge Halverson's caseload included both criminal and civil cases, but it led Halverson's co-counsel admitting that the judge had never post-prosecuted or defended a criminal case before. But when she was elected, she was given both. Judge Hardcastle said that the decision to bar Halverson from the Clark County Regional Justice Center was made by a group of people. Hardcastle was told by other judges working with her that Halverson's work was inadequate in mention as a past legal clerk in the 8th Disctrict Circuit Court of Nevada. During her testimony to the prosecution Hardcastle stated, "Personally, I found her to be incompetent as a law clerk and not capable of doing her job," testifies Chief Judge Hardcastle. "I had questions as to whether or not she would be able to perform her tasks as a judge if she was elected".

Elizabeth Halverson says she has more than 130 witnesses on her list to call as well as she faces testimony from Halverson's co-council later in the proceedings.

References

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