Las Vegas judge responds to state judicial ethics complaint, denies allegations of bias, prejudice against police
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Insisting that she did not commit “willful misconduct,” a beleaguered Clark County judge responded to a state judicial ethics complaint by denying each of its many allegations of bias and prejudice against police.
Erika Ballou, through her attorney, answered the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline’s February complaint on Thursday, which aimed to discipline her for disparaging the police in statements she made in open court. She lashed back at two police groups critical of her by saying they “appear to throw down the gauntlet” to the commission.
“I have never shown preferential nor unfair treatment because of their race or occupation,” Ballou wrote in her verified answer to those charges from 2021 and 2022. “There is no evidence I have ever done that as a sitting judge.”
In the 2021 case, Ballou is accused of excusing a defendant’s decision to flee from police in a vehicle pursuit on the Las Vegas Strip by chastising the prosecutor and stating “Clearly you’re not a Black person in the United States of America, because there are absolute reasons to run from the police.”
Later in the sentencing hearing, Judge Ballou explained as “someone who, you know, has lived in the United States as a Black person, that’s absolutely an untrue statement that he didn’t have any reason to run.”
In July 2022, the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, the union representing Metro police officers, called for Ballou’s resignation as well as an ethics investigation after she made comments about police officers during a separate sentencing mentioned in disciplinary documents – namely a Formal Statement of Charges against Ballou.
I-Team: Police union calls for judge to resign after comments about police
“Their complaints with me start well before I was a judge,” Ballou wrote, referring to an instance in 2016 where Ballou was seen wearing a Black Lives Matter Pin.
Additionally, In January, as first reported by the 8 News Now Investigators, the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline filed a formal statement of charges against Ballou for her social media posts, including one where she posed in a hot tub with two public defenders in April of 2022.
Las Vegas judge defends hot tub photo which led to ethics charges
But, as Ballou points out in her answer, “No prosecuting agency (District Attorney or Attorney General) has sought my recusal in any criminal matter for bias or prejudice against any law enforcement agency.”
Ballou served as a public defender for over 15 years before being sworn into the bench in 2021. Her current term ends in 2027.
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