Judge candidate loses battle in assault cases

A Las Vegas attorney seeking election as Las Vegas justice of the peace has been getting a first hand look at the flip side of Nevada's justice system.

Michael Schaefer is going to be on house arrest for the next two months and required to undergo weekly psychological counseling for his attacks on two neighbors. One was pepper sprayed and the other shoved.

Schaefer has been fighting the assault charges since the mid-1997 incidents, but District Judge Donald Mosley on Monday upheld the conviction and sentence handed to him by visiting Justice of the Peace Marley Robinson, of Moapa.

Schaefer's case has snaked from the Justice Court to the District Court to the Nevada Supreme Court and back again and he lost at every step.

Mosley's ruling Monday against the candidate for Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Dept. 7 apparently wasn't unexpected because within an hour, Schaefer filed another legal challenge, this time in federal court.

Schaefer is contesting the authority of non-attorney judges to preside over cases where incarceration is possible, claiming that violates a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Should Schaefer win, it could affect over half of the judgships in Nevada since state law does not require justices of the peace or municipal court judges to be attorneys if their jurisdiction is not larger 250,000 people.

Only Las Vegas is that large.

But Deputy District Attorney Bart Pace doubts Schaefer will win since Mosley already has considered that issue and ruled against the would-be judge.

Schaefer pointed to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that states non-lawyer judges are legal only if a defendant can appeal and get a completely new trial before a higher court where the judge is a lawyer.

In Nevada, such appeals are decided by district judges who only review transcribed records of Justice Court trials.

Pace said that is equivalent to a new trial since defendants' rights are protected.

Schaefer, who once was a San Diego City Councilman, sought public office three times in Nevada but was never elected.

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