14-05-2025
Glamourous Vegas judge steps down amid unseemly sex claim
A controversial Las Vegas judge has removed herself from a case after being accused of making a baseless sex claim about a public defender in court.
Erika Ballou, a Clark County District Judge who has a history of questionable behavior, allegedly accused attorney Anna Lee Stone of sleeping with her homeless client, according to an affidavit obtained by Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Stone called for Ballou to be disqualified from all her cases in a complaint filed on Friday, alleging 'Ballou has demonstrated a deep-seated antagonism toward me that makes fair judgment impossible.'
She also claimed Ballou has made legal decisions without providing explanation, which has interfered with the fair court process.
Ballou wrote in a Tuesday minute order she had no doubt 'she could remain fair and impartial,' but chose to step down anyway.
The fed-up lawyer's strained professional relationship with Ballou dates back several months and specifically involves the cases of two of her clients, Jermaine Garner and Dshawn Cross.
Trouble began on January 15, when Stone had an arraignment regarding Cross, the client Ballou made the raunchy claim about.
Cross previously settled on a deal - he would plead guilty to a felony charge of attempted residential burglary in exchange for another charge to be dropped.
Ballou did not sentence Cross at the hearing and wanted to keep him in custody. Stone requested he be released so he could go to a funeral.
The attorney claimed Ballou outright refused to explain why she did not want to let Cross out of custody to attend the event.
'I stated that I believed the court's refusal to provide a reason would violate the Defendant's right to due process and constitute an abuse of discretion,' Stone wrote, according to Las Vegas Review-Journal.
'Judge Ballou still did not provide a reason for refusing to release the Defendant.'
After discussing the matter with the case's prosecutor, who agreed Cross should be released once he officially made his plea, Ballou allowed him to walk free with an ankle monitor the following hearing.
But Cross ended up back in custody because of trouble with tracking him. His ankle monitor was reportedly not charged.
Deputy Public Defender Dan Cho, who represented Cross in court on February 12 instead of Stone, said that at the end of the hearing, Ballou 'described Mr. Cross as the case for which "Anna Stone has lost all credibility in front of me."'
Another lawyer, Abigail Stanley, reported a similar incident on March 17 in a separate affidavit.
Ballou (pictured) wrote in a Tuesday minute order she had no doubt 'she could remain fair and impartial,' but chose to step down anyway. She has come under fire in the past for her social media posts, including one about her not wanting to go into work after a concert
She claimed Ballou and a prosecutor were gossiping about Stone, with Ballou asking what her 'problem' was.
'During this conversation, Judge Ballou accused Ms. Stone of "f**king" her client,' she wrote.
Cho and Stanley both pointed out Ballou was at her bench while she made the vulgar and groundless assertion.
Stone accused Ballou of sexual harassment and believes the judge has an apparent vendetta against her.
'After Judge Ballou made her accusation, my client suffered by being remanded back into custody at a hearing where Judge Ballou rolled her eyes, twice, during my argument for why my homeless client should stay out of custody,' Stone wrote.
'Though her nonverbal conduct during these proceedings may not, alone, be indicative of bias, when viewed in conjunction with her other conduct toward me, it showed a level of dislike and antagonism that has affected her rulings.'
Cross was sentenced to jail time, and during an April 7 hearing, Ballou allegedly told him it was Stone's 'fault he was in custody.'
The incident that pushed Stone to finally file a complain against Ballou involved another one of her clients, Garner, who pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen vehicle.
Stone claimed Ballou, a former public defender herself, did not let her 'make a record about a custody issue implicating a client's fundamental right to liberty.'
Court spokeswoman Mary Ann Price told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the 'recusal appears to apply specifically to' Garner's case.
It is unclear is Ballou will be barred from ruling on all of Stone's cases.
This is not the first time Ballou has found herself in hot water.
Last May, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson sought out to have Ballou barred from all criminal cases, accusing her of being biased against prosecutors, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Wolfson said she was repeatedly ignoring orders from the Nevada Supreme court by releasing prisoner Mia Christman from custody before her sentence was up.
Christman pleaded guilty to robbery with a deadly weapon and failing to stop on a police officer's signal in 2017.
She was to serve up to 15 years in prison and was to be eligible for parole after five years.
In November 2021, Ballou granted Christman freedom from prison while the Supreme Court was still pending the appeal.
The Supreme Court ended up overturning the decision, but Ballou did not order Christman back to jail.
The district's attorney's office filed an ethical complaint against her - which is still pending - citing several violations.
Early last year, Ballou was criticized for sharing a post in a bikini with two public defenders, Shana Brouwers and Robson Hauser, with the latter shirtless and smiling for the camera.
She captioned the Facebook post with 'Robson is surrounded by great t*ts.'
Ballou also shared a message online, in which she complained about having to work the next day after a Billie Eilish concert.
The post said: 'Life is STILL beautiful, despite the fact that Billie Eilish doesn't start for 30 minutes and I have an 8:30 calendar tomorrow.'
It also included the hashtag, 'Vacatethe[Explitive]OuttaOutofCustodyCases', suggesting defendants who are not in custody should have their cases tossed.
The Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline filed a statement of charges against her for her outrageous social media behavior.
The commission said that Ballou had violated their rules requiring a judge to promote public confidence and avoid impropriety, which she admitted to.
After Ballou agreed to the censure, the commission decided not to pursue her over a post including lyrics to a Cardi B song in response to the complaint her posts.
Ballou said the posts were intended to be private and did not influence her work.
In 2022, she made an alarming courtroom comment about police officers.
She faced calls from the Los Vegas Protective Association to resign after telling a defendant in her courtroom she didn't know if she would 'walk away alive' from cops.
At the time, she said: 'You're the one making the decisions not to walk away from cops.
'You're a Black man in America. You know you don't want to be nowhere where cops are.
'You know you don't want to be nowhere where cops are cause I know I don't, and I'm a middle-aged, middle-class Black woman.
'I don't want to be around where the cops are because I don't know if I'm going to walk away alive or not.'
