Columnist Jeff German: Gang Court idea has merit in fight to take back streets

FAMILY COURT CANDIDATE Bob Lueck may have one of the better ideas this campaign season.

Lueck, a longtime Las Vegas lawyer, says he'll push to create a Gang Court if he's elected to help police in their ongoing battle with street gangs.

Actually, Lueck, who's running against Family Court Judge Fran Fine, has borrowed the idea from Southern California, where Metro Gang Capt. Terry Lesney says Gang Court has been successful.

The theory behind such a court is to create a special division within the justice system to give neighborhoods a chance to fight back through civil proceedings. Injunctions (with the threat of fines and jail time) can be sought to stop the gangs from operating in certain areas.

Lesney, who oversees Metro's overworked 41-member Gang Bureau, likes the idea.

Though Lesney isn't endorsing anyone in the Family Court race, she says police need all the help they can get in their war with Southern Nevada's 8,592 gang members and associates.

"As long as you get community support, it will work," Lesney says. "But if you can't get the community behind it, it won't be a viable program."

Lueck says a Gang Court will give the justice system a way to play a vital role in attacking gangs.

"The court system has not helped much to curb gangs," Lueck says in a campaign brochure. "Gang Court will work."

If it doesn't cost the taxpayers too much money, Bob, you might have something here.

The race to succeed County Commissioner Lorraine Hunt has veered into the gutter.

Tom Chickery, one of seven candidates vying for Hunt's seat, is throwing mud at perceived front-runner, Democratic Assemblyman Dario Herrera. Some of the guck is being hurled at two innocent bystanders, County Commissioners Yvonne Atkinson Gates and Lance Malone.

Chickery, a Democrat, hits Herrera in a campaign mailer for landing in trouble with the Nevada Ethics Commission.

But the mailer doesn't stop there.

It links Herrera's troubles to those of Gates and Malone, who recently were rapped by the Ethics Commission.

Above the photos of all three is the headline, "A New Era of Leadership?"

Below is the bold caption: "At 25, Dario is already under (an) ethics investigation ... just wait until the big money boys get a hold of him."

No where is there any mention of what Chickery would do as a county commissioner.

This campaign piece rates high on the sleaze meter.

Maggie Carlton got her first taste of politics last March, when she introduced President Clinton to a labor friendly crowd in Las Vegas.

Today, Carlton, a Treasure Island waitress and mother of two teenagers, is running as a Democrat in Senate District 2.

She's trying to unseat Sen. Jack Regan of Las Vegas in the Sept. 1 Democratic primary. And she's getting a lot of help from her politically active union.

With so many other big races this year, the Culinary Union has made the election of Carlton its top priority.

It's the first time the union has run one of is own for state office.

Regan, who hasn't always gotten along with the Senate's Democratic leadership, will be tough to beat. He has a strong following in the district.

Last week's ethics hearing involving Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones looked like a lovefest compared to previous meetings.

Members of the Nevada Ethics Commission, especially its chairwoman, Reno lawyer Mary Boetsch, actually were civil toward the mayor.

It was a far cry from the snootiness that marred the June donnybrook involving a trio of Clark County Commissioners.

Maybe the ethics panel is starting to realize it's being used a bit too much this election year.

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