LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The recent shuttering of a first-of-its-kind courtroom in Las Vegas may be linked to the sudden resignation of a judge from her senior role at the Justice Court, a candidate running against that judge told the 8 News Now Investigators.
“I think [in large part] that’s due to a strong lack in leadership,” Madilyn Leavitt Cole, a chief deputy district attorney running for Justice Court Department 5, said. “I think that is confirmed by the recent resignation.”
Cole faces Department 5 incumbent Cynthia Cruz, who resigned suddenly as chief judge Thursday. Cruz remains on the bench and will take over Department 4, which housed the so-called Strip court for less than two years beginning in early 2023. Officially known as the Resort Corridor Court, it was designed to punish offenders who repeatedly get arrested for crimes committed on the Strip.
Cruz, in a statement to the 8 News Now Investigators, said Cole’s correlating Cruz and the closure of the Resort Corridor Court are (RCC) “not only incorrect but completely off base.”
In July, Justice Court judge Melissa Saragosa left the bench after 18 years, according to the website of the private law firm that now employs her. Saragosa, a former chief judge of the Justice Court herself, ran the Strip court until about the time it ended and she left the bench. Her departure led to a vote of Justice Court judges that ultimately put an end to the Strip court, Tick Segerblom, chairman of the Clark County Commission, told the 8 News Now Investigators Friday.
At that time, in August, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill, District Attorney Steve Wolfson and the Nevada Resort Association co-wrote a letter to the Justice Court urging its administrators not to close the Strip court.
“We respectfully ask the Court to reconsider its decision to eliminate the RCC,” the letter said.
The letter continued: “We simply do not understand why the Justices would abolish the RCC and your letter does not provide any logical support for its dissolution.”
That letter went unanswered, according to the Nevada Resort Association president, Virginia Valentine.
“We have not heard from the court administrator but we would welcome an opportunity to meet with the judges to better understand their concerns and revisit their decision,” Valentine said through a spokeswoman.
Justice Court judge Melissa De La Garza, currently occupying Department 15, will take over for Cruz as chief judge in January, according to Segerblom.
The cases normally heard exclusively in the Resort Corridor Court will now be spread across several courtrooms, Segerblom told the 8 News Now Investigators Friday.
“The concept is still in place and Justice Court will still be enforcing the order out,” Segerblom said of the court’s effort to exclude criminal misdemeanants from the Strip after they’re arraigned.
Cole, Cruz’s opponent, supports the concept of the Strip court.
“I’m an advocate for the Resort Corridor Court,” Cole said. “I think it was working. I think it serves a necessary function.”
Judge Cruz’s entire statement in response to Cole’s comments, is as follows:
“[Madilyn] Cole’s statement regarding the closure of the Resort Corridor Courts is not only incorrect but completely off base. Her remarks reflect a total lack of understanding of the issue. Ms. Cole has never attended a judges’ meeting and clearly knows nothing about the collective vote taken by all of the judges—a vote that was conducted to ensure fairness.
“The closure of the Resort Corridor Courts was a decision made pursuant to that vote, not as an independent decision by any one judge or myself as the Chief Judge. Before making such uninformed statements, Ms. Cole should take the time to learn the facts and seek out the right answers.
“She should also avoid passing along incorrect information in an attempt to bolster her campaign or position.”
