Sisolak announced Wednesday that he selected former Legislative Counsel Bureau lawyer Victoria Gonzalez for the role. The new department is a product of AB80, a bill passed in 2019 that called for a stand-alone, nonpartisan staff to coordinate and exchange data between criminal justice agencies and advise volunteer members of the state’s Sentencing Commission.

The Nevada Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Thursday in an appeal brought by the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), stemming from a lawsuit filed by the group in September 2018 to obtain Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department body camera footage involving an incident with Ford in November 2017. A District Court judge denied the group’s request in October 2018, leading to the appeal to the state’s Supreme Court.

The five-year contract involves running the state’s Day Reporting Centers — facilities offering more intensive supervision for people on parole and probation that can be used as an “intermediate sanction” in place of going to jail for people with minor violations of their parole terms.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Carson City District Court by NevadansCAN, a self-described “non-profit citizens action network” based in Henderson and led by Mary Rooney, a former Republican state Assembly candidate and a conservative activist. Attornies representing the group are Alan Lefebvre and William Schuller of the Kolesar & Leatham law firm.

According to the Nevada Judiciary’s 2019 annual report, which was released Thursday, the state’s two highest courts had 2,042 appealed cases pending at the end of the 2019 fiscal year — a slight decrease from last year’s record-high backlog of 2,201 pending cases.

More recently, he held a senior role at the New York City Department of Corrections, and earlier this year he was named deputy commissioner of operations for the Alabama Department of Corrections — a prison system recognized by the Department of Justice as one of the worst in the country for homicide, suicide and rape.

Some of the strengths highlighted in the report include strong judicial leadership in both jurisdictions, being able to manage extremely heavy caseloads, and the use of technology to meet their operating goals. Authors noted that Nevada’s system for judicial records was ranked near the bottom in the country in 1999 and is now sixth from the top in rankings from the National Center for State Courts.

The state’s Department of Public Safety in late October sent a letter to inform all federally licensed firearm sellers in the state that individuals with a CCW license will not be allowed to avoid undergoing a background check for a private sale or transfer of a firearm — even though CCW permit holders typically don’t have to undergo a background check when buying a gun from a retail store.

There has never been a formal proclamation from the Bar or Supreme Court giving a clear blessing to investment in the industry. But neither has a feared crackdown materialized, and lawyers are increasingly public about their participation.

Those findings and other potential improvements on mental health services in the state prison system were released publicly on Thursday as part of an audit report presented to the Executive Branch Audit Committee (composed of the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer and controller).

Members of BIDS, who were announced on Tuesday, are charged with helping keep a standard level of legal representation throughout the state for anyone in financial need who is charged with a crime. The board is made up of 13 voting members and three non-voting members, who are appointed to three-year terms.

Associate Chief Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court Kristina Pickering will seek re-election in 2020. Chief Justice Mark Gibbons will not. The chief presiding criminal judge for Clark County’s District Court, Douglas Herndon, confirmed last week that he will seek a seat on the high court in 2020.

“It never occurred to me to quit,” said Gedney. “And then I also really became aware of the abuses of power in a prison, and I’ve always wanted to protect people from abuses of power and that can be inmates on inmates, officers, and administration on inmates abusing their power, and all that you need there is a couple of bad apples and you can get an ugly sort of situation.”

Starting in January, people who represent themselves in court and want to file for a Temporary Protective Order (TPO), otherwise known as a restraining order, will be able to do so in the same Las Vegas location that processes custody, divorce and other related civil proceedings.

Questions still remain about the ramifications of the decision throughout the state. ICE’s deputy field office director in Las Vegas, Dana L. Fishburn, argued that severing the tie “will make Clark County residents less safe.”

Fumo, a criminal defense attorney whose experience includes work as one of O.J. Simpson’s defense attorneys when the former football player appealed his 2008 kidnapping and armed robbery conviction, was first elected to the swingy Assembly District 21 in Las Vegas in 2016.

Metro noted the court decision is likely to be appealed and that the agency will “continue to work with ICE at the Clark County Detention Center in removing persons without legal status who have committed violent crimes.”

In the last 12 years, there have been multiple attempts to pass legislation to allow firearms on campus in Nevada, the last being 2015 when bill AB148 died in the Republican-controlled Senate after passing the Republican-controlled Assembly. Collins-Johnson testified in favor of such measures in 2011, 2013 and 2015.