LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A district court docket decide is suspended with out pay for no less than six months after a fee sanctioned her for failing to ship a prison defendant to jail and defying state supreme court docket orders.
The Nevada Fee on Judicial Self-discipline, which gives oversight of judges within the state, launched its findings towards Clark County District Court docket Decide Erika Ballou in a Sept. 22 doc.
Ballou violated the code of judicial conduct by failing to remand defendant Mia Christman, 31, though a Nevada Supreme Court docket order reversed Ballou’s earlier choice to assist Christman’s launch. Ballou additionally didn’t enter a judgment in favor of prosecutors after a supreme court docket order granted the state’s place, and didn’t comply with the regulation and handle motions filed by prosecutors or disqualify herself from the case, paperwork stated.
A grand jury indicted Mia Christman in 2013 for a violent crime spree she dedicated at 18 years previous.
Clark County District Court docket Decide Erika Ballou seems in court docket. (KLAS)
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 choice to launch Christman, and finally appealed to the state supreme court docket, which ordered Ballou to rule in favor of the state and return Christman to custody.
Ballou didn’t comply with two supreme court docket orders.
When Ballou refused to conform, the district court docket’s chief decide reassigned the case. Christman was ordered to return to jail to serve the rest of her authentic sentence in 2024.
On this case, Ballou was accused of six counts of committing judicial misconduct. The fee, by a 7-0 vote in all counts, agreed that Ballou dedicated three of the counts.
The fee suspended Ballou from judicial workplace for six months, with out a wage, efficient Sept. 23, if she completes a specialised remedial coaching program with the Nationwide Judicial Faculty at her personal expense, along with having no additional violations throughout a two-year probation interval. Twelve months of the overall 18-month suspension shall be suspended if Ballou completes all necessities.
At a public listening to of the state Fee on Judicial Self-discipline on Aug. 7, Ballou defended her actions, argued she was exhibiting compassion primarily based on Christman’s troubled previous, and identified that Christman 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 stated.
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 stated. “I don’t believe anyone thinks that that brings dishonor on the court. Arguing it does blows my mind.”
Ballou additionally defined sure court docket procedures that led to among the allegations towards her and denied having any bias towards prosecutors.
“This is a case about honor, or, more specifically, failure of honor,” Thomas Bradley, particular counsel prosecuting the case towards Ballou, stated on the listening to.
Christman was serving her sentence on the Florence McClure Ladies’s Correctional Heart, a state jail for girls in North Las Vegas, in line with data from the Division of Corrections.
Along with the Christman case, Ballou stays on the heart of further 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 during 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 consumer.
Ballou stated 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.
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.
The 8 Information Now Investigators reached out to Clark County District Court docket and Ballou on Monday afternoon and discovered that Ballou was lively in her judicial function on Monday, and a senior decide will deal with her circumstances beginning Tuesday, in line with a district court docket spokesperson.
