Lawyer's troubles deepen with child porn charges

Las Vegas attorney Nancy Estabrook, already in trouble and in jail over drug woes, is now facing a string of felony charges over a video involving her husband and her 9-year-old niece.

Estabrook, whose law license has been surrendered because of unspecified medical problems, was charged Tuesday with nine counts of aiding and abetting the sexual assault of a minor, using a minor in the production of pornography and seven counts of possessing child pornography.

The arrest warrant was served on her as she sat in the Clark County Detention Center, where she has been for more than a month after failing to show up for Drug Court hearings, according to Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon.

Estabrook was sent to Drug Court last year after pleading guilty to possessing a controlled substance.

The edited videotape shot in 1995 first surfaced when Nancy Estabrook presented it in 1997 during the bitter divorce case with her husband, Lee Estabrook, to keep him from getting custody of their 3-year-old child.

Lee Estabrook's attorney, Joe Houston, said Nancy Estabrook indicated she found it in a box of videos she took from the couple's home, although she later admitted it had been kept in a safe deposit box.

Houston said that Lee Estabrook, who faces multiple sexual assault of a minor and child pornography charges, doesn't dispute that it is his image on the video but has maintained that Nancy Estabrook was the person behind the camera.

Herndon noted the video camera obviously was handheld during the three- to four-minute taping, but Lee Estabrook's word was insufficient to justify felony charges against the lawyer.

The girl, he said, was drugged and claims she remembers nothing of the incident memorialized on videotape.

But Herndon said a second witness has surfaced who is willing to testify that Nancy Estabrook admitted being the one behind the camera.

"It would be shocking that any woman would videotape a 9-year-old girl being molested, but it is disgusting that the girl was Nancy Estabrook's own sister's child," Houston said.

He added that Lee Estabrook has been willing to cooperate with authorities, although Herndon said no deal has been struck for his testimony.

Convictions for sexual assault of a minor in this case would carry mandatory life sentences with parole possible only after 10 years have been served. Since 1995, the minimum time to eligibility for parole has been increased to 20 years.

The drug charges against Estabrook originated after she and a friend were caught with marijuana and cocaine in March 1997 by Metro Police officers who were investigating an unrelated incident. The amount of cocaine was just under the 4-gram level that would have elevated the offense to a trafficking charge and precluded Drug Court as an option.

Estabrook's plea bargain had left the door open for her to avoid a felony conviction because the charge would have been dismissed if she completed the yearlong Drug Court program.

But she was jailed earlier this year by District Judge Jack Lehman after three incidents of failing to appear at Drug Court or for drug testing.

She now faces the possibility that she will be kicked out of the Drug Court program and sentenced on the felony possession of drugs charge.

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