Opinion ID: 1442633
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Sarkissian's Writ of Mandamus

Text: With the foregoing in mind, we next consider petitioner Sarkissian's request for a writ of mandamus directing respondents, The Second Judicial District Court of the State of Nevada and Judge Schouweiler, to dismiss the indictments against him. In his order dismissing the indictment against respondent Babayan, Judge Schouweiler wrote: The Court finds a difference in the level of misconduct directed towards Mr. Babayan and Mr. Sarkissian. It finds that the misconduct toward Sarkissian does not rise to the level of a denial of his constitutional rights or to the level where the Court must exercise its supervisory powers. Judge Schouweiler continued later in his order: Mr. Lane strongly inferred to jurors that Mr. Babayan hired child molesters, and tried to obstruct the investigation, Sarkissian, on the other hand, was not dealt with unfairly in this regard. The district court's reasoning is faulty: it finds the District Attorney's suggestion that Babayan hired child molesters objectionable, but it does not find equally objectionable the inescapable suggestion that Sarkissian was the child molester who Babayan hired. The very conduct that Judge Schouweiler found to be improper, and which we have concluded cumulatively supports the dismissal of the indictments, i.e., the conflicts of interest and the failure to present exculpatory evidence, touched each of the three defendants equally. In Lawson, 502 F. Supp. 158 (D.Md. 1980), one of Lawson's co-defendants joined in a motion to dismiss the indictments against them on the ground of prosecutorial misconduct. The co-defendant contended that if the court found the misconduct, which concerned only Lawson's illegal activities, to have occurred, he, as well as Lawson, was entitled to relief because they were indicted by the same grand jury and evidence as to each was not segregated. Id. at 161 n. 5. After determining that the prosecutor's conduct was deliberately misleading and calculated to create a false impression on the grand jury, id. at 163, the court dismissed the indictments against both defendants without prejudice. Id. at 173. Here, just as in Lawson, the same grand jury indicted the three defendants, and the district attorney's office did not segregate evidence. Unlike the situation in Lawson, however, the derelictions that occurred here directly impacted each of the three defendants. Although the State argues that the extraordinary remedy of mandamus is not available to petitioner Sarkissian, it nonetheless concedes that there is no significant reason for treating Ruben Babayan and the Petitioner differently. Insofar as there is no reason to treat petitioner Sarkissian differently than respondent Babayan, we agree with the State. We cannot agree with the State, however, regarding the availability of the writ. Petitions for extraordinary relief are addressed to the sound discretion of this court. State ex rel. Dep't Transp. v. Thompson, 99 Nev. 358, 362, 662 P.2d 1338, 1340 (1983). In Thompson, we stated that judicial economy and sound judicial administration militate against the utilization of mandamus petitions to review orders denying motions to dismiss... . Id. at 362, 662 P.2d at 1340. We indicated, therefore, that we would no longer exercise our power for that purpose. Id. We believe that here the very considerations of sound judicial economy and sound judicial administration which underscored our decision in Thompson, militate in favor of granting Sarkissian's petition. Having concluded that there are substantial grounds to support the district court's decision to dismiss the indictments and that there is no principled reason to distinguish between petitioner Sarkissian and respondent Babayan, we believe that to permit petitioner Sarkissian's case to be treated differently than Babayan's could result in a gross miscarriage of justice. The circumstances of this case therefore reveal urgency and strong necessity; thus, extraordinary relief is appropriate. See Jeep Corp. v. District Court, 98 Nev. 440, 443, 652 P.2d 1183, 1185 (1982).