LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Erika Ballou, the embattled district court docket decide who repeatedly defied state supreme court docket orders to ship a prison defendant again to jail, commented publicly for the primary time Thursday, defending her actions in a prison case that led to the district lawyer calling for her elimination from the bench.
At a public listening to of the state Fee on Judicial Self-discipline, Ballou defended her actions in a case relating to a girl—Mia Christman—who pleaded responsible to 2 felony expenses and began serving, at minimal, a 10-year jail sentence in 2016 as a part of a violent crime spree when Christman was 18.
Ballou, whose testimony was at occasions feisty, basically argued that in permitting Christman to stay out of jail, she was displaying compassion primarily based on Christman’s troubled previous and that she had a child whereas she was free. Ballou testified she tried to keep away from separating Christman from her new child.
“I didn’t want that to happen,” Ballou testified.
That compassion, Ballou argued, was grounded within the canons of judicial ethics.
“I would hope that it would bring respect to the judicial system,” Ballou mentioned.
Tom Pitaro, Ballou’s lawyer, in his closing argument to the fee, concurred.
“It doesn’t bring disrespect upon the court if a judge looks at a terrible situation facing a six-month-old child and says, ‘I want to give you time to straighten it out,'” Pitaro mentioned. “I don’t believe anyone thinks that that brings dishonor on the court. Arguing it does blow my mind.”
Ballou additionally defined sure court docket procedures that led to among the allegations towards her, and denied having any bias towards prosecutors.
“It’s not correct,” Ballou mentioned.
Ballou vacated Christman’s sentence in 2021, leading to Christman’s launch from jail earlier than she completed serving the unique time period. The state objected to and appealed Ballou’s determination to launch Christman, and in the end appealed to the state supreme court docket, which ordered Ballou to rule in favor of the state and return Christman to custody.
When Ballou refused to conform, the district court docket’s chief decide reassigned the case.
Christman, 31, is at the moment being held at Florence McClure Girls’s Correctional Heart, a state jail for ladies in North Las Vegas, in accordance with data from the Division of Corrections.
Ballou mentioned she inherited the Christman case when she assumed her elected place in district court docket. Ballou was elected in 2020 and commenced her time period in 2021, changing a retired decide.
Thursday’s listening to started at 8 a.m. with out Ballou, who arrived late, indicating she had gotten misplaced earlier than arriving on the listening to location on the Las Vegas workplace of the Nevada State Bar.
The State Fee on Judicial Self-discipline formally charged Ballou in April for ethics violations for, amongst different issues, bias, not recusing herself from the Christman case, failing to cooperate with the fee’s investigation, and failing to uphold the regulation. The fee had beforehand censured Ballou for sure moral violations.
“This is a case about honor, or, more specifically, failure of honor,” Thomas Bradley, particular counsel prosecuting the case towards Ballou, mentioned on the outset of Thursday’s listening to.
Pitaro, on behalf of Ballou, summarized his complete argument in a single sentence to the fee.
“The question is, what did Judge Ballou do?”
The fee additionally heard testimony, largely of a procedural nature, from Christman’s court-appointed lawyer, Betsy Allen. Allen had secured Christman’s launch when she efficiently moved that the court docket rethink Christman’s sentence.
Along with the Christman case, Ballou stays on the middle of extra controversies. She was publicly censured and ordered to take a course on judicial and social ethics after posting a photograph of herself in a sizzling tub with public defenders in 2021 and a separate incident by which she made feedback about police.
In Might 2025, Clark County District Court docket Chief Decide Jerry Wiese stripped Ballou of all of her prison circumstances after a public defender accused Ballou of mistreatment. That protection lawyer filed a doc with the court docket alleging Ballou accused her in open court docket of getting a sexual affair together with her shopper.
The 8 Information Now Investigators solicited remark regarding every of those issues from both Ballou or her lawyer, Tom Pitaro, to no avail. Each Pitaro and Ballou refused the 8 Information Now Investigators’ request for remark after Thursday’s listening to.
Ballou served as a public defender for over 15 years earlier than being sworn into the bench in 2021. Her present time period ends in 2027.
