Effort to remove judge in Aspen Financial case fails

By Steve Green

Friday, Sept. 4, 2009 | 6:36 p.m.

Plaintiffs in one of the investor lawsuits against Aspen Financial Services have failed in their bid to have the judge in the case disqualified.

Court records show that Chief Clark County District Court Judge Art Ritchie on Thursday denied a motion that District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez be removed from a case involving Lois Levy and other plaintiffs.

His findings were based on canons in the Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct.

Ritchie cited canons calling for:

--Judges to perform the duties of judicial office impartially and diligently.

--Disqualification if the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

--Disqualification if the judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or a party’s lawyer.

--Disqualification if the judge has personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts.

Gonzalez is presiding over one of three cases in which investors are suing Aspen, charging Aspen has mismanaged their investments and deceived them.

Aaron Maurice and Scott Taylor, attorneys for Levy and other plaintiffs, said in a July 23 court filing that Gonzalez failed to make required disclosures before ruling on a contested matter in the case and has shown bias.

Gonzalez was appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Kenny Guinn, father of Aspen Financial owner Jeff Guinn.

Gonzalez had denied the allegations of bias in the investor lawsuit and said she made appropriate disclosures about her past experience involving Jeff Guinn and Kenny Guinn.

Aspen attorneys, with the firm Bailey Kennedy, argued against the motion to disqualify Gonzalez, calling it "utterly meritless."

They pointed to a 2000 Nevada Supreme Court ruling saying: "A judge is presumed to be impartial and the party asserting a challenge carries the burden of establishing sufficient factual and legal grounds warranting disqualification."