LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Attorneys for the State Bar of Nevada will hold a disciplinary hearing in March in an effort to permanently disbar — or perhaps suspend — the law license of embattled Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned.
“Disbarment is on the table,” Daniel Hooge, bar counsel said Friday.
Hooge and attorneys for Jones held an informal hearing Thursday, remotely, in which the two sides argued motions related to Jones and his law license. Attorneys for the bar also added a second complaint to the original set of allegations against Jones. The hearing lasted some three-and-a-half hours, Hooge said. A new hearing is scheduled for late March.
Jones was accused of deleting text messages in 2019 related to a development deal involving land next to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. A May 24 ruling in Clark County District Court found that Jones “willfully destroyed evidence and did so because he viewed that evidence as being favorable to Gypsum.”
The land in question is on Blue Diamond Hill, about three and a half miles from the Red Rock Visitors Center. Clark County approved the development in October 2023 after a decade-long fight. Ultimately, the county and developer settled for $80 million, more than half of which will come out of funds previously set aside for parks.
It was Jones who led the effort to stop the Gypsum Resources plan to develop near Red Rock. Rhodes, owner of Rhodes Homes and the developer of Spanish Hills, Rhodes Ranch, Tuscany Village, and other projects, secured county approval for the project in 2011, but the battle continued for years. At one point, a state law was approved to stop the development, but the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional.
The state bar’s complaint against Jones, the District F commissioner, deals with his conduct during and after the Gypsum deal.
Hooge, the bar counsel, said the disciplinary committee deciding the case must determine Jones’ mental state and the “size of the injury” caused by any misconduct Jones is found to have committed. Essentially, the issue boils down to whether Jones acted negligently or, alternatively, acted intentionally in deleting data from his phone, among other things.
“We see this as intentional misconduct, and we see the injury as serious,” Hooge said.
Jones’ entry in the state bar’s directory lists him as an active member since 2003 with no disciplinary action on his record. It lists him under the employ of Jones Lovelock, an eponymous firm with an office in Las Vegas.
Jones did not return a message late Friday afternoon seeking comment on this matter.
A spokeswoman for Clark County immediately returned a message from the 8 News Now Investigators, saying, “Clark County declines to comment.”
Jones was elected to County Commission in 2018 and re-elected to a second four-year term in 2022.
