Judge posed in hot tub with public defenders, faces ethics charges
A Las Vegas judge facing ethics violations around her social media posts, including one where she posed in a hot tub with public defenders, responded about her potential discipline with lyrics from a Cardi B song, including the words: “Get money, go hard, you’re [expletive] right.”
‘You’re mother****** right,’ Las Vegas judge facing ethics violations over hot tub photo responds with Cardi B lyrics
Last Wednesday, the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline filed a formal statement of charges against Clark County District Court Judge Erika Ballou. Two charges Ballou faces center around the posts, one where she appears to state that cases in which 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***.”
In the formal statement of charges, the commission referred to Ballou’s Instagram post from Sept. 19, 2021. Her caption on the selfie read, “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 charges also state that in April 2022 “Judge Ballou posted a photograph of her Facebook page of herself in a hot tub with two public defenders, Shana Brouwers and Robson Hauser, with the caption, ‘Robson is surrounded by great t***,’” according to the formal statement of charges.
Ballou won her election in November 2020 and was sworn in as a judge in January 2021. She has previously faced criticism.
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.”
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