High court dismisses appeal by candidate for justice of peace

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court Monday dismissed the appeal of Michael Schaefer, a candidate for justice of the peace in Las Vegas, who was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of battery.

Schaefer, who survived the primary election, wanted the court to either reverse his convictions or to order a new trial. He said he wants to go into the closing weeks of the campaign as a "vindicated citizen rather than labor under a dark cloud that some court must blow away in due course."

District Judge Donald Mosley had refused to grant a new trial and overturn the convictions which involve assaults on two of Schaefer's neighbors. Schaefer contends that he was convicted in a court run by a justice of the peace who was not a lawyer.

Schaefer says he has affidavits from his two victims that his actions were in self defense. He pepper-sprayed one man and shoved another woman in 1997. He received a 90-day jail sentence and was ordered to seek counseling. Sixty days of the sentence was suspended and his 30-day term of house arrest ended 17 days early.

But Schaefer says he "now goes forward to the general election with the scorn and ridicule of the media arising from two convictions..."

Schaefer could not be reached for comment. His answering machine said he is out of town until Wednesday night.

He has run unsuccessfully for elective office at least three times in Nevada.

Schaefer sought a writ of mandamus to force Mosley to reverse the convictions or to order a new trial. The Supreme Court said its intervention at this point in the case is not warranted.

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