LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Justin Jones cleaned his cellphone of all textual content messages associated to a lawsuit in opposition to Clark County in April 2019 for 2 particular, dishonest causes: corruption and cover-up, the state’s bar counsel informed a listening to panel Monday.
In his personal protection, Jones testified he doesn’t bear in mind “whatever the act of deleting was” or “why I deleted the text messages.”
Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones faces disciplinary listening to
“He knows the importance of text messages,” Dan Hooge, the bar counsel, stated in a gap assertion at Jones’ disciplinary listening to, as a part of his try to droop or revoke Jones’ license to apply regulation in Nevada, which he earned in 2003.
Jones represented a bunch of residents that opposed an actual property improvement deliberate close to Pink Rock Canyon on Blue Diamond Hill previous to and across the time of his election to the Clark County Fee in 2018. The developer, Jim Rhodes, finally gained an $80 million lawsuit in opposition to the county.
“Everything that you do, you need to be honest,” Hooge informed a three-attorney panel listening to Jones’ case. “And also you need to avoid criminal acts. It is a criminal act to bribe an elected official.”
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Hooge stated Jones was trying to persuade then-commissioner – and eventual Democratic governor – Steve Sisolak to vote to disclaim the developer’s request for the county to waive sure restrictions the county positioned on the challenge. Sisolak shouldn’t be a celebration nor a witness within the Jones matter earlier than the state bar.
Rhodes and his firm, Gypsum Sources, battled with the county for the higher a part of a decade earlier than the county settled Rhodes’ lawsuit. The county’s lawyer, on the time, suggested settling with Rhodes to keep away from a possible $2 million verdict and since the town of Las Vegas had not too long ago misplaced a expensive authorized battle with a unique developer.
State bar counsel filed 2 complaints in opposition to Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones
“You cannot destroy evidence if your intent is to keep that from the opposing party,” Hooge stated.
On behalf of Jones, his lawyer, former Clark County District Court docket Choose Rob Naked, stated that Jones didn’t deliberately delete his cellphone’s textual content messages for some other motive than a “political cleansing” after commissioners voted in opposition to Rhodes’ request to waive a situation the county imposed on his challenge.
“Their job is to do what’s right for the public,” Naked stated of the county commissioners. “To do what’s right for their constituencies.”
Naked, who emphasised to the listening to panel the significance of taking Jones’ character into consideration in deciding whether or not to revoke his regulation license, stated Jones’s actions had been, largely, aimed toward representing the group of neighbors who had been vocal of their opposition to the Blue Diamond improvement.
“What is the matter with that?” Naked requested. “Welcome to America.”
The listening to is scheduled to final by Wednesday night. A call on Jones’ regulation license will come in some unspecified time in the future after that.
Jones’ colleague, District B commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick, and Las Vegas Metropolis Councilman of Ward 1 Brian Knudsen, are anticipated to testify voluntarily on Jones’ behalf, Naked stated.
Jones, the sitting county commissioner for District F, was elected to a second four-year time period in 2022.
