Latest news with #LasVegasJusticeCourt
American Military News
13-05-2025
- American Military News
Federal judge mulling releasing man accused in Las Vegas Tesla fires
A federal judge indicated at a Friday hearing that she is considering whether the man accused of lighting Teslas on fire in Las Vegas can be released from custody with conditions to ensure community safety. Authorities have identified Paul Hyon Kim, 36, as the person who vandalized at least five Teslas around 2:45 a.m. on March 18 at a Tesla service center at 6260 Badura Ave., near South Jones Boulevard and the 215 Beltway. His arrest comes as protesters around the country have targeted Teslas as a symbol of Elon Musk, the company's CEO who has sought to shrink the federal government in his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency. Kim, who faces federal counts of arson and unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elayna Youchah for a detention hearing. In a separate Las Vegas Justice Court filing, he faces 15 counts — including arson, destroying or injuring another's property, discharging a firearm at an abandoned vehicle and possessing, manufacturing or disposing of an explosive or fire device. Kim has no criminal history and cooperated with the FBI, Youchah said, but the fires clearly had a 'political purpose.' She added: 'It's a very serious crime for this community, and that's not lost on me.' The judge was concerned that Kim lives alone and does not have connections to the community, but she said she believed he might be able to be released with a custodian and home detention. She suggested the appropriate custodian might be his mother and said she would be willing to continue the hearing until his mother could come to court. Youchah cautioned that she could not guarantee she would release Kim to his mother. Ben Nemec, a federal public defender, said Kim's mother is willing to come to court at any time. Kim is scheduled to be back in federal court Monday afternoon. A hearing in his Justice Court case is set for April 1. Authorities said video footage showed Kim shooting a gun at security cameras and Teslas, as well as setting three vehicles on fire using the Molotov cocktails. Someone also spray-painted 'Resist' at the facility, according to the footage. Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren has said Kim had 'very loose' ties to social media groups such as the Communist Party USA, Revolutionary Communist International, Hidden Palestine and Palestine Action. ___ © 2025 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Need for eviction assistance ‘is only going to get greater,' state lawmaker warns
(Photo: Ronda Churchill/Nevada Current) Anticipating growing economic hardship, state lawmakers are considering appropriating an additional $25 million in eviction diversion funds to prevent tenants who fall behind on rent from being locked out of their homes. Assembly Bill 475, heard Friday in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, would appropriate $18 million to Clark County and $7 million to Reno to continue their ongoing eviction diversion programs. Tenants who qualify for the program are able to get outstanding rents paid and avoid an eviction. Democratic Assemblymember Daniele Monroe-Moreno, the bill's sponsor, anticipated more people could be at risk of financial insecurity and eviction since 'the times we are living in are going to get more interesting.' 'There is a need for eviction support in our state, and I believe it's only going to get greater,' Monroe-Moreno said. Monroe-Moreno's concerns are shared throughout the nation and the world, as the trade war started by Donald Trump last week has led to historic nosedives in markets and increasing fears of a recession. Both Clark and Washoe counties have benefited from rental assistance dollars to divert people from evictions, said Jonathan Norman, statewide advocacy, outreach and policy director for Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers. Since pandemic-era rental assistance has scaled back, eviction diversion has been exclusive to people living with disabilities or who are elderly with fixed incomes. The $25 million request is higher than $18 million approved in 2023. 'The reason the ask is higher is because we want to expand beyond seniors and adults with disabilities to families with young kids,' Norman said. 'In Clark County, they identified about 1,600 families with a child under the age of one at risk for eviction. This would allow us to route those cases to eviction diversion as well.' Reno Judge Kendra Bertschy told lawmakers the proposed financial allocation is a 'crucial investment in community stability, public safety and responsible governance.' 'The need for legislative support for rental assistance remains urgent,' she said. 'Economic challenges, medical emergencies, and other unforeseen events continue to put renters at risk of eviction. Without continued funding, many will face housing insecurity, increasing the burden on emergency services, shelters and the judicial system ultimately costing taxpayers more.' Prior to the pandemic, the Las Vegas Justice Court averaged about 33,000 eviction cases filed each year, said Las Vegas Judge Jessica Goodey. There have been 'record high filings' and Las Vegas Justice Court had '43,030 evictions filed' in 2024,' she said. She didn't note how many evictions were granted in 2024. 'To date in 2025, we have had 9,985 evictions and we are anticipating that number to continue to increase with the current state of affairs,' Goodey said. From the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020, state and local governments have used federal relief dollars to help people at risk of eviction. Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed a bill in 2023 that would extend a modified version of an eviction protection passed by state lawmakers in 2021 that temporarily paused an eviction while rental assistance applications were pending. However, Lombardo approved Assembly Bill 396 in 2023 that allocated $18 million in rental assistance dollars. State lawmakers originally sought to approve $44 million for rental assistance in Clark and Washoe county with AB 396 in 2023. The amount was reduced to $12 million for Clark County and $3 million each for Reno and Sparks and Reno. The Las Vegas Justice Court used the funds to expand its existing eviction diversion program while Reno stood up a new eviction diversion program, Norman said. Of the cases going through the Vegas court, '1,375 diverted cases in 2024 were households with an adult with a disability and 575 were seniors,' he said. While he said Reno has offered rental assistance since the pandemic, it only recently started a housing justice court that offers an eviction diversion program. Since Reno's eviction diversion court started in August, '94 households went through the eviction diversion program with 80% of them remained housed,' Norman said. Without additional funds provided by the state, the program most likely won't be able to continue, Bertschy said. Republican Assemblymember P.K. O'Neill questioned if lawmakers were forgetting to allocate rental assistance support for rurals. When lawmakers were debating the 2023 allocations, rurals indicated they were still using ARPA dollars for rental support, Norman said. He said they indicated they wouldn't need additional funds through the legislature. Monroe-Moreno said she is looking into an amendment to include funding for rural areas. The committee took no action on the bill.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Democrats tee up eviction reform Lombardo vetoed two years ago
Democratic Assemblymembers and eviction reform legislation sponsors Erica Roth (at podium) and Max Carter (applauding in background) at a press event in Carson City Wednesday. (Nevada Assembly Democrats photo) Upon returning home to Las Vegas from a trip from Los Angeles, Lousetta Keyes found a 7-day 'pay rent or quit' paper eviction notice taped to her apartment front door. There wasn't anything Keyes could do since it was late at night, she told state lawmakers at Wednesday's Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing as she recounted the recent experience. After a restless night spent worrying about why she was facing eviction, she went to her rental office first thing in the morning. That's when she was told the notices stemmed from being short $32 on rent. Keyes said because of surprise 'junk fees' attached to her monthly rental payment, she had no idea she had an outstanding amount. Let alone a number so little. Instead of going through a court process to seek an eviction for unpaid rent, Nevada's summary eviction process requires tenants be the first to file with the court after a 7-day notice is placed on their door. The basic notice template is easily accessible online to landlords and 'all they have to do is hit print,' Keyes said. 'They put a 7-day notice on my door for $32,' she said. 'That's not fair. If they had to file with the court they would have had to call me and ask why my rent was short.' Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed legislation in 2023 that would have reformed Nevada's eviction laws, considered some of the nation's most tenant-hostile. The bill was among numerous tenant protection and eviction protection bills he vetoed. Assembly Bill 283 would once again seek to restructure the process for filing an eviction. Democratic Assemblymember Max Carter, the bill's sponsor, said he not only wanted to give eviction reform another chance. He also wants to give Lombardo a 'second chance to do what's right for Nevadans, all Nevadans, not just corporate landlords.' Nevada has a 'summary' eviction process that allows landlords to evict tenants within days unless the tenant files a challenge to the eviction in court. That is the opposite of most states, where landlords must first file with a court to execute an eviction. Lombardo's veto message on the summary eviction bill said the legislation would 'impose additional and unnecessary delays' and costs 'make our summary eviction process more time-consuming' on property owners. The bill is about rebalanding a lopsided system, Carter said while presenting his legislation to the committee Wednesday. 'If you've ever attended eviction court, and Las Vegas Justice Court in particular, it is so tilted against tenants that it's ridiculous,' Carter said. 'It's shameful to watch. We need to do something to restore the balance.' AB 283 was one of two bills heard Wednesday by the Assembly Judiciary Committee seeking to address the impact of Nevada's eviction system. Assembly Bill 201 seeks to expand efforts to automatically seal eviction records. 'These records can negatively impact credit scores making it difficult to secure rental housing, employment and even access to loans,' said Democratic Assemblymember Erica Roth, the bill's sponsor. 'Even when the outcome of an eviction favors a tenant, a single eviction record can severely limit a person's ability to find safe and affordable housing, trapping them in a cycle of homelessness or substandard living conditions.' Members of the Housing Justice Alliance, which include organizations such as Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Make the Road Nevada and ACLU of Nevada, called on lawmakers to support both bills. 'With our cost of living crisis and lack of tenant protections, we have an eviction-to-unhoused pipeline,' said Ben Iness. These bills are 'an important step to remedy that.' Real estate and property management groups opposed both bills. 'I think changing the process is not going to stop evictions from happening,' John Sande, a lobbyist for the Nevada State Apartment Association said in opposition to AB 283. 'The cause of eviction is the cost of housing.' There were at least 85,000 summary eviction cases filed last year in Nevada, said Jonathan Norman, the advocacy, outreach and policy director for the Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers. But that figure 'does not account for the number of cases where somebody receives a notice but the case does not proceed,' he said. The current law requiring tenants to file an answer to an eviction notice with the court — instead of having the landlords file with the court first — not only creates a burdensome process for renters. It also prevents the state from assessing the full scope of the eviction crisis. AB 283 would require landlords to file with the court after giving tenants a 7-day notice. Once the landlord filed with the court, the tenant would then have 7 judicial days – days the court is open – to respond. If a tenant responds to the notice before those 7 days are up, a court hearing is scheduled. But if the tenant doesn't respond to the court notice, an eviction is granted. 'The big shifts are when the landlord files a complaint and the tenant has a period to respond,' Norman said. The bill, he added, would bring the state in accordance with 'every civil process in the United States of America.' 'This is the only process where a tenant has to initiate the lawsuit against themselves,' he said. 'I just think of how absurd that sounds.' Republican Assemblyman Toby Yurek asked whether the bill would create unintended consequences by driving small landlords out of the housing market. 'You mentioned corporate rights landlords that certainly could absorb some of these costs that are going to be and delays that are going to incur with this process or this policy choice,' he said. 'My concern is for smaller landlords.' Carter said that in the states where landlords, not tenants, have to make the eviction filing, 'this isn't an onerous burden on small landlords.' Though an eviction happens in a single moment, 'the consequences last for years,' said Norman with the Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers. Nevada law already allows tenants to petition a court to seal an eviction record. AB 201 would seek to further protect renters from the economic onus of having a Nevada eviction on their record. The bill allows for court records to be automatically sealed one year after the eviction is granted or when a case is dismissed. 'If someone has been unlawfully evicted, they shouldn't have to face barriers to getting back on their feet and into housing,' Roth said. 'We are in a housing crisis and experiencing record numbers of people facing homelessness. We are seeing families on the verge of eviction every single month.' Experiencing an eviction and facing homelessness is already traumatic enough for people, Roth said. Landlords could oppose the records being sealed. If they don't, the record would be automatically sealed, Norman said. Landlords still have other tools, such as income requirements, to determine whether to rent to a tenant, he added. Republican Assemblymember Lisa Cole asked about how the bill would address tenants who receive more than one eviction over several years. She proposed amending the bill to include 'a limit where no more than two times can a record be sealed in five years.' Norman said they have had clients who have faced nine evictions in less than two years simply because 'landlords will (issue) multiple evictions within the same month.' The committee didn't take action on either bill.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proposal raises penalties for crimes at Las Vegas Strip, Nevada resorts
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Judges sentencing a person for a crime at a Las Vegas resort could have more penalties in their toolbox should a Republican state senator's bill become law. Introduced Monday, Senate Bill 371, from Republican State Sen. John Steinbeck, would create additional penalties for crimes at Nevada resort hotels with more than 200 rooms and a casino. Under current Nevada law, judges can sentence a person to an enhancement in certain crimes. For example, a judge may impose a harsher sentence if the victim of a crime is 60 years or older or if the defendant used a deadly weapon to commit a crime. In the case of Robert Telles, the ex-politician found guilty last year of murdering investigative reporter Jeff German, a judge added a minimum of eight years to his sentence because of the weapon and German's age. Should Steinbeck's proposal become law, a judge could double a person's sentence and require the additional time to be served consecutively. For example, right now based on state statute, if a person is found guilty of robbery on the Las Vegas Strip, they could face a sentence of anywhere from one to 20 years in prison. Under this proposal, a judge could sentence a person to 4-10 years with an additional 4-10 years because the crime happened at a resort. The proposal did not have a hearing scheduled as of Monday. Judges hearing cases involving arrests on the Las Vegas Strip can restrict a defendant's access to the area while the case is pending. Las Vegas Justice Court implemented a Resort Corridor Court several years ago but closed the program in 2024. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Veterans Treatment Court offers second chance to many
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – It's a proud moment for Michael Jones, one of three veterans who graduated from the Veterans Treatment Court program Tuesday morning. Once addicted to fentanyl, he said the program turned his life around. 'There's lots of programs for everybody. If you're a veteran in need, you need to reach out okay and talk to somebody,' remarked Jones. 'They are there to help you and if you want to succeed, then you have to have willingness. That's where it starts.' The Veterans Treatment Court provides an alternative to jail time which involves treatment, accountability, and structure while connecting the veteran to services and benefits they have earned. In order to graduate, each individual must have attended treatment sessions, counseling, and appointments; and developed goals for their future. They must also be housed and financially stable and be drug and alcohol-free for a minimum of 90 days prior to graduation. Veterans spend one year in the program which Jones stated was a wakeup call. 'It was like Christmas when you see your three ghosts. You have your past, present, and your future. That's how it felt, how it was. You have to self-reflect,' added Jones. 'There's a lot of mirroring going on and the hardest part about being sober was trying to improve being a better parent and that was very important.' Judge Harmony Letizia from Las Vegas Justice Court oversees the Veterans Treatment Court program and says she is proud to be part of a transforming process. 'You look at veterans who have given everything for all of us right?' explained Judge Letizia. ' For our freedoms, they've given their entire lives to serve our country and they end up in the system for some reason or another, and oftentimes they're overlooked or made to be part of the system and if we can take these individuals who have given everything and serve them in some kind of way, I think that's a great calling. For Jones, he is ready to move forward and has this word of advice. 'Be strong, be safe, be smart, stay sober,' advised Jones. Judge Letizia told 8 News Now over 90% of individuals who graduate from this program, do not return to the criminal justice system which means nine out of 10 people go back into the community. After completing the Veterans Court Treatment program, the veteran's criminal charges that led them to court are scrubbed, giving them a clean slate. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
