David Charns, Vanessa Murphy, and Kyle J. Paine
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Clark County judge in hot water for posing in a tub with public defenders faces a new ethics charge after seemingly saying a defendant, who is Black, had good reason to run from police, documents said.
In a new filing posted Wednesday, the commission alleges Clark County District Court Judge Erika Ballou violated judicial ethics twice: once in 2021 and once in an incident the 8 News Now Investigators reported in 2022.
In the 2021 case, commissioners said Ballou “excused a defendant’s decision to flee from police in a vehicle pursuit on the Las Vegas Strip… [chastising] the prosecutor stating, ‘[a]nd there being no reason to run from the police, clearly you’re not a Black person in the United States of America, because there are absolute reasons to run from the police.’ Later in the sentencing hearing, Judge Ballou explained, ‘[s]o just as someone who, you know, has lived in the United States as a Black person, that’s absolutely an untrue statement that he didn’t have any reason to run.’”
In July 2022, the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, the union representing Metro police officers, called for Ballou’s resignation as well as an ethics investigation after she made comments about police officers during a separate sentencing cited in Wednesday’s complaint.
“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,” Ballou said. “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.”
Commissioners said Ballou violated the “impartiality of the judiciary” for both comments.
As the 8 News Now Investigators reported last month, the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline also filed a formal statement of charges against Judge Ballou for her social media posts, including one where she posed in a hot tub with public defenders.
“Judge Ballou posted a photograph of her Facebook page of herself in a hot tub with two public defenders, Shana Brouwers and Robson Hauser, with the caption, ‘Robson is surrounded by great t***,’” according to the formal statement of charges.
Ballou later responded about her potential discipline on social media with lyrics from a Cardi B song, including the words: “Get money, go hard, you’re [expletive] right.”
In the formal statement of charges, the commission referred to Ballou’s Instagram post from Sept. 19, 2021. Her caption on the selfie read, “Life is still beautiful, despite the fact that Billie Eilish doesn’t start for 30 minutes and I have an 8:30 calendar tomorrow.” Ballou also posted the hashtags, “Vacatethe[Explitive]OuttaOutofCustodyCases” and “WhereInTheWorldisCarmenSanDiego.”
In the filing, the commission alleged that Ballou violated three rules requiring a judge to promote public confidence and avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety, to put the duties of the judicial office before their personal and extrajudicial activities, and to show that they can remain impartial.
Before becoming a judge, Ballou was a public defender and social justice organizer. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which supported her run for judge.
In 2016, Judge Ballou refused to remove a Black Lives Matter pin after a judge ordered her to. This made national headlines. Ballou won her election in November 2020 and was sworn in as a judge in January 2021. She has previously faced criticism.
The Clark County public defender’s office has never commented on their employees in the hot tub photo.
Ballou has declined to comment on the previous ethics violations. She and the court’s chief judge did not immediately respond to a request for comment.