Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Sparks fly as county seeks a new source of jurors

Nevada Power has pulled the plug on Clark County's desire to use the company's customer list in juror pool selection.

The rejection comes in the wake of several unreturned phone calls made by court administrators seeking use of the lists in hopes of increasing the diversity in the county's juror pools.

Gabriel Romero, a spokesman for Nevada Power, said Monday the company is prevented by Nevada law from sharing such information.

Romero was referring to a state law the company contends prevents the lists from being used because Clark County has more than 400,000 residents.

The six-year-old law says that in a county whose population is less than 400,000, a public utility "shall provide a list of the names and addresses of the customers of the public utility upon the request of any district judge or jury commissioner, for use in the selection of jurors."

Court Executive Chuck Short said "hopefully reasonable people can reach an accord that candidly is in the best interest of public service."

Short said District Court judges gave unanimous support for court administrators to "use whatever means are appropriate" to secure the use of Nevada Power's customer lists for juror pools.

"The court has taken seriously the need to obtain the best source lists available to seek out the most diverse juror pool in Clark County, and I think we've been really moving along the process quickly," Short said.

Using Nevada Power's customer list in conjunction with Department of Motor Vehicle lists, which the courts currently use, would cost the county less than $2,000 per year, Short said.

He said he has been assured technology would be in place to "eliminate duplicate juror summons" and make sure people don't get asked to serve twice.

The county simply needs the names and addresses of the power company's customers and would do whatever was required to make sure any and all confidential information would remain with Nevada Power, he said.

"Based on giving them (Nevada Power) the assurance we would not disclose any confidential billing information about their customers, I'd be very surprised if we received a blunt no in response to our request," Short said. "They'd be providing a public service by sharing the names."

Short, however, said in the past few weeks Assistant Court Administrator Michael Ware's calls to Nevada Power representatives to discuss the use of customer lists have gone unanswered.

In response to a hypothetical situation in which Nevada Power refuses to share the lists, Short said court administrators are prepared.

"We'll look at the law and see if it requires it (Nevada Power to release the lists), and if it doesn't, the judges will need to decide whether to wait till the 2007 Legislature convenes to change the law or if diversifying the juror pool is important enough to use their inherent power to order Nevada Power to share the lists," he said.

Short said he hopes the issue doesn't come down to the judges getting involved. He planned to call Nevada Power President Pat Shalmy this morning to try to avert such a situation.

While Romero wouldn't comment on how Nevada Power would respond to a court order forcing it to turn over the lists, another company spokeswoman, Andrea Smith, has previously said the company would abide by such an order. While Smith said the company's policy is that its "customer information is private," she noted that the information is shared with police and fire departments for use in investigations and emergency response.

Criticism from several prominent criminal defense attorneys and recommendations made by the Nevada Supreme Court in the past for the courts to use multiple source lists to select juror pools had prompted court administrators to contact Nevada Power about its customer lists.

In an article published by the Sun in October, critics of the county's current sole use of lists of people who have driver's licenses or state identification cards said the system creates juror pools that fail to fully reflect the diversity of the county's population.

They argued that multiple source lists should be used because not all people drive or have identification cards and that many people who are poor move more and are in most cases less apt to keep their addresses current with the DMV. The result is that people from lower socio-economic levels are not being adequately represented, critics say.

If successful in obtaining use of Nevada Power customer lists for use in juror pool selection, the state would join three of its neighbors in using multiple source lists.

Arizona, which is considered one of the most progressive states regarding jury pools, uses phone books, those who request water service and welfare and unemployment rolls, in addition to its DMV lists.

California uses state tax returns and Social Security rolls in addition to its DMV lists. Utah augments its DMV lists with voter registration rolls.

Matt Pordum can be reached at 474-7406 or at [email protected].

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