Agreement leads to public censure
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A judge will be publicly censured and must take a course on judicial and social ethics after posting a photo of herself in a hot tub with public defenders and making comments about police.
Clark County District Court Judge Erika Ballou admitted she violated several ethics rules in an agreement and order of public censure with the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline filed June 11. The commission filed a formal statement of charges against Ballou earlier this year.
As the 8 News Now Investigators previously reported, some of the charges centered around social media posts, one where Ballou appeared to state that cases where defendants are not in custody should be tossed out and another in which she posed with two individuals from the Clark County Public Defender’s office in a hot tub and referred to “t***.”
The commission also referred to an Instagram post from Sept. 19, 2021, with the caption, “Life is STILL beautiful, despite the fact that Billie Eilish doesn’t start for 30 minutes and I have an 8:30 calendar tomorrow.” Ballou also posted the hashtags, “Vacatethe[Explitive]OuttaOutofCustodyCases” and “WhereInTheWorldisCarmenSanDiego.”
The commission said Ballou violated three rules requiring a judge to promote public confidence and avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety, to put duties of the judicial office before their personal and extrajudicial activities, and to show that they can remain impartial.
According to the order filed Tuesday, Ballou said her social media posts were intended to be private and did not influence her work. Another post from earlier this year, involving Cardi B lyrics, was not addressed.
Another count involved comments Ballou made during hearing about police. 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.
“You’re the one making the decisions not to walk away from cops. You’re a Black man in America. You know you don’t want to be nowhere where cops are,” Ballou said. “You know you don’t want to be nowhere where cops are cause I know I don’t, and I’m a middle-aged, middle-class Black woman. I don’t want to be around where the cops are because I don’t know if I’m going to walk away alive or not.”
As the 8 News Now Investigators first reported, the Nevada Supreme Court ordered Clark County District Court Chief Judge Jerry Wiese to remove Ballou from a criminal case on May 3. Ballou had not followed two previous orders from Nevada’s high court regarding the same case. The May 3 order pointed to “the district court’s failure to comply.”
In late May, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson filed a petition with the court, asking a judge to remove Ballou from all criminal cases the office prosecutes. In his motion, Wolfson referred to Ballou’s behavior as “egregious,” and wrote, “The stakes are extraordinarily high for Judge Ballou since one potential outcome of this ethics complaint could be her removal from judicial office.”
In her response, Clark County District Court Judge Susan Johnson said Wolfson needed to file an affidavit laying out the facts for his request and present the document to the judge. Johnson said she was randomly assigned the petition and that Wiese was the correct party to determine case reassignment.
As part of the agreement, Ballou must attend an online course about judicial and social media ethics, documents said.
As part of the agreement, Ballou must attend an online course about judicial and social media ethics, documents said.
Ballou served as a public defender for more than 15 years before being sworn into the bench in 2021. Her current term ends in 2027.
A district court spokesperson has repeatedly said Ballou was unavailable for comment. Wolfson can refile his request for Wiese to remove Ballou from criminal cases.
