Opinion ID: 1162526
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the tension between federal agents and the nevada federal district court judges

Text: When respondent first assumed the federal bench in September of 1978, he initially was assigned to the Reno area, where he remained until late fall of 1979. [16] During his tenure on the bench in Reno, and upon his return to Las Vegas, several events transpired which respondent claims ultimately motivated some federal officials to abuse their authority in the overzealous pursuit of his criminal prosecution. First, in 1980, Joseph Yablonsky arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada, as the Special-Agent-in-Charge of the Las Vegas office of the FBI. [17] Upon his arrival in Nevada, Yablonsky reportedly proclaimed that his mission in Las Vegas was to plant the American flag in the Nevada desert. [18] In testimony presented to the Senate Impeachment Trial Committee, Hank Greenspun, the publisher and editor of the Las Vegas Sun, stated that he visited Yablonsky's office the second day that Yablonsky arrived in Las Vegas. Greenspun recalled that Yablonsky had decorated his office walls with pictures and newspaper articles recounting Yablonsky's exploits in previous FBI criminal investigations. According to Greenspun, Yablonsky indicated, at that time, that a large vacant spot on his office wall had been specifically reserved for Judge Claiborne because he was going to hang Claiborne up there. [19] Gerald Swanson, the former IRS District Director for Nevada, indicated that Yablonsky made similar comments when Swanson visited Yablonsky's office in December of 1981. [20] Second, when respondent Claiborne returned to the Las Vegas area in 1979, an atmosphere of animosity and hostility had arisen between the federal district judges in Nevada and certain attorneys in the Justice Department's Strike Force which was investigating organized crime in Nevada. [21] For example, in 1979, then Chief Judge Roger Foley apparently suspected that Geoffrey Anderson, the chief prosecutor for the federal strike force in Las Vegas, had leaked information to the news media from sealed affidavits in a case pending in federal court. Judge Foley's criticism of strike force tactics apparently motivated Anderson to seek Judge Foley's disqualification from at least one case prosecuted by strike force attorneys. [22] In December of 1979, for example, Federal District Judge Thompson denied an attempt by Anderson to have Judge Foley disqualified from presiding over a case prosecuted by the strike force because of actual bias. In denying Anderson's motion, Judge Thompson apparently indicated that Anderson's attitude toward the sensitive problem of judicial disqualification was unbecoming an attorney for the government. [23] The tension between the federal district court judges in Nevada and the strike force is further evidenced by events which transpired in April of 1980. Chief Judge Foley learned that insulting materials and caricatures were prominently displayed on a bulletin board in the offices of the strike force. [24] Oscar Goodman claimed the derisive items on the bulletin board were in full view of, and had an intimidating and prejudicial effect upon, members of the grand jury, as well as potential grand jury witnesses. These materials consisted of a mock man-on-the-street interview with numerous individuals including former Clark County Sheriff John McCarthy, Judge Claiborne, Judge Foley, defense counsel Goodman, and other individuals, some of whom were reputedly connected with organized crime in Nevada. [25] Sardonic responses to the question, [d]oes organized crime really run the casinos and the State of Nevada?? appeared beneath the photographs of those depicted. In the space reserved for Judge Claiborne's photograph appeared the notation no pictures please. Judge Foley, on the other hand, was depicted as a clown dressed in circus regalia. We do not deem it appropriate to set forth the statements attributed to those ridiculed in the item in question. We observe, however, that although the unknown author of this sarcasm ostensibly compiled it in jest, the fact that it was displayed within the confines of the United States Department of Justice, and apparently within the purview of members and witnesses of the grand jury, demonstrated an appalling arrogance, contemptuousness, and lack of decorum. On April 4, 1980, Judge Foley ordered United States Marshals to remove these items. [26] Thereafter, the problems between the strike force attorneys and the federal district judges became so acute as to attract the attention of Nevada's congressional delegation, the highest officials in the Justice Department, and the Clark County Bar Association. [27] Judge Foley subsequently concluded in light of this atmosphere that he should no longer preside over cases involving the strike force. Further, respondent Claiborne was scheduled to assume Judge Foley's administrative duties as Chief Judge for the District of Nevada in May of 1980. Respondent claims that these facts, in addition to the fact that he had ruled adversely to the government's position and had criticized strike force tactics in several cases which had come before him, eventually motivated some within the strike force and the FBI to view him as an obstacle in their path, and to seek his removal from office. [28] The difficulties between the strike force and respondent Claiborne were further exacerbated in April of 1980, when the news media began reporting that Judge Claiborne was himself a target of a grand jury investigation spearheaded by the strike force and the FBI. [29] In particular, the media reported that a grand jury was investigating allegations that Judge Claiborne prior to his appointment to the bench, had hired a Las Vegas detective, Eddie LaRue, to conduct illegal electronic surveillance in the course of a defense investigation. The Public Integrity Section of the United States Department of Justice dispatched an attorney to Las Vegas to pursue these allegations. [30] Upon learning of the grand jury activity, on April 10, 1980, Judge Claiborne publicly stated that he had been cleared of these same charges prior to his appointment to office. Additionally, he publicly denounced the strike force, called for disbandment of the grand jury, and suggested that the grand jury had been tainted by the improper tactics of some strike force agents and attorneys. Specifically, the Las Vegas Sun, in an article entitled, Judge Says Strike Force Must Go, quoted Judge Claiborne as follows: Charging they were a bunch of crooks, U.S. District Judge Harry E. Claiborne said Wednesday Las Vegas Strike Force attorneys should be thrown out of Nevada and their Special Federal Grand Jury disbanded. I think they have outlived their usefulness, and they should be removed from this community, Claiborne said. The grand jury has become tainted and should be disbanded. Claiborne said the strike force, which he believes is responsible for 25-30 illegal wiretaps, also conducts illegal arrests and other such far-reaching illegal activity. They're a bunch of crooks, and they know I know it, Claiborne angrily said. I'm not going to let them ride roughshod over this community. I'm going to stop them. [31] We note, however, that in May of 1980, Judge Claiborne voluntarily removed himself from presiding over any further strike force cases. [32] It was in this setting, then, that federal law enforcement officials pursued the first of four grand jury investigations of Judge Claiborne conducted in Las Vegas, Portland, Oregon and Reno, respectively.