LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The Las Vegas Justice Court docket confirmed Tuesday that it held a first-of-its-kind listening to involving 8 Information Now to find out whether or not to launch public information to the media as a result of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division warned them that doing so would possibly jeopardize a legal investigation.
Las Vegas Justice Court docket Decide Nancy Bernstein held a listening to in her courtroom two weeks in the past with regard to the arrest report of a person arrested and booked into jail on costs of — amongst different issues — tried homicide. 8 Information Now Investigator David Charns argued for the media’s proper to any doc within the justice court docket’s file and a lawyer for LVMPD argued towards the doc’s launch.
In the end, Charns and Metro’s lawyer agreed on a date by which the police would offer the doc. However the listening to uncovered a sequence of questions associated to the system(s) the police and courts use to offer and withhold public information. In Tuesday’s e mail to the 8 Information Now Investigators, the court docket insisted it didn’t make any choices based mostly solely on Metro’s enter.
“We want to be clear, at no time did LVMPD ask Justice Court to deny a media request, and at no time were any substantive decisions about media requests made without a hearing being scheduled and the media having the opportunity to appear and be heard,” Charles Mapp, the justice court docket administrator and clerk, wrote. Metro’s lawyer, Martina Bauhaus, defined at Bernstein’s July 15 listening to the police division’s rationale for withholding public information and wanting the justice court docket, in some circumstances, to do the identical.
‘The media got smart:’ Las Vegas Metro police admits to asking justice court docket to withhold public information
“The media got smart and circumvented the process of us denying it, went to the court, and the court, not knowing that they were denied by us, would release it,” Bauhaus stated in open court docket. “The court is now getting the information of when we deny somebody, and then they look at it and see if they agree with it.”
In a press release from its public data workplace final week, Metro instructed the 8 Information Now Investigators, Metro elaborated.
“To prevent the release of information that could endanger an individual or group involved in an active case, the justice court agreed to consider withholding records when LVMPD does,” Metro said in a statement to the 8 News Now Investigators. “A simple process was created whereby LVMPD informs the justice court when LVMPD has denied a request for an arrest report.”
The justice court docket downplayed the notion of a “simple process.”
“The judges of Las Vegas Justice Court were recently made aware that LVMPD was communicating in May and June 2025 with a Justice Court staff attorney about media requests,” Mapp stated within the justice court docket’s assertion. “LVMPD notified the staff attorney that LVMPD had declined to provide certain records. Upon the Court receiving a media request for those records, a hearing was set.”
Colleen McCarty, an lawyer on the regulation agency Ballard Spahr and a frequent advocate for 8 Information Now, stated all the premise of the police and court docket discussing media requests is improper besides in a particularly restricted set of hypothetical circumstances.
“There should be a higher burden,” McCarty stated. “If you are going to come to court docket and combat about — you may’t have this public file proper now as a result of there are extenuating circumstances — a police officer is beneath cowl in some capability and this might in some way blow their cowl Or there is a witness whose life has been threatened and we have to hold that beneath wraps for a minute. These are the sorts of issues that could be argued, after which the court docket would have the chance to weigh them. Channel 8 would have the chance to argue towards it. None of that occurred right here.
The unique request made by an 8 Information Now Investigator to Metro involved a capturing on July 7. It raised a reporter’s curiosity stage when a decide gave the person arrested by Metro – Justin Tribble, 24 — a $750,000 bail. Metro denied to offer the report, and when 8 Information Now sought to retrieve the general public file from the Justice Court docket, Bernstein referred to as a listening to.
A grand jury then indicted Tribble on, amongst different issues, tried homicide. The justice court docket case, in consequence, was dismissed. Tribble was scheduled to be in district court docket for his preliminary arraignment on Wednesday, however that listening to was continued, in response to court docket information.
