Las Vegas NowI-Team: Formal Charges Filed Against Judge Halverson

I-Team: Formal Charges Filed Against Judge Halverson

Nearly six months after she was suspended from her job, formal charges have now been filed against District Court Judge Elizabeth Halverson.

The charges were filed late Monday and make some new allegations about the judge never before heard in a public forum.

The Judicial Discipline Commission filed a 14-count complaint against Judge Halverson Monday.

Read the full complaint against Judge Halverson

Some of the charges we have heard before, such as allegations that the judge fell asleep during trial and harassed her courtroom staff.

The most explosive new allegations are that Judge Halverson also tried to hack into the county's computer system.

The complaint says that Halverson privately used the services of a computer company "in an attempt to breach the computer system installed at the Regional Justice Center."

The complaint alleges that Judge Halverson was trying to further her "private purposes of accessing the mail or reading the input of other employees."

This statement of formal charges comes just one business day after Judge Halverson's attorneys filed an emergency motion with the Nevada Supreme Court, asking the high court to block any further action by the Judicial Discipline Commission.

In those documents, Halverson's attorneys said that by waiting to file any formal charges the judge's rights have been trampled.

The I-Team spoke with Judge Halverson's attorney Bill Gamage late Monday. He says there is nothing new in today's filing -- and that the commission is "too little, too late" with its formal charges.

Proceedings of the state's Judicial Discipline Commission are secret and that is why none the computer hacking allegations have been made public.

Many of the documents in the case become public only after it reached the Nevada Supreme Court.

Email your comments to Reporter Mark Sayre