LEGAL WEIGHT
Is Judge Halverson being found guilty of obesity?
BY GEORGE HARRIS

George Harris is publisher of Liberty Watch: The Magazine. He is also a political activist and successful Southern Nevadan businessman. Reach Harris at gopgeorge@earthlink.net  Other stories by George Harris

It’s a story that won’t budge from Las Vegas headlines, but not for any sizeable reasons. In fact, the media persecution of Judge Elizabeth Halverson is a curious development, especially since the conflict is really nothing more than a thinly veiled feud. 

Of course the 450-pound Halverson is far from thin. Rather she’s a boulder-sized thorn in the side of Chief Judge Kathy Hardcastle. Back in 2004, Hardcastle fired Halverson, who had been working in her office as a law clerk. Likely out of spite, Halverson ran against Hardcastle’s then-husband … and lost. However, last year Halverson won a District Court judgeship. As you can imagine, knives were sharpened in gleeful anticipation.

But why is the media sticking it to Halverson? Well, let’s examine. Almost every article — whether in the Las Vegas Review-Journal or Sun — refers to Halverson’s weight by at least the third paragraph. Furthermore, there doesn’t seem to be a photographer in town capable of shooting Halverson when she’s not tooling around the courthouse in her Lark, or when she doesn’t have tubes in her nose, pumping her full of oxygen. Finally — and get this — she was found guilty by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline for posing “a substantial threat to the administration of justice.” 

News flash: Anyone who knows the Nevada legal system realizes it’s not Halverson who poses a threat. (Consider, for instance, the judges in the palm of union boss Danny Thompson’s hand — you know, the state Supreme Court arbiters who ruled that the TASC initiative, which sought to curb government spending, wasn’t constitutional enough for last November’s ballot.) She has been suspended from the bench until a September hearing, which prompted even more headlines and now national news coverage. It’s as if, dare we say it, Halverson is being persecuted for being, well, too hefty.

Obesity — along with carbon production — is the new criminal act. With trans-fat bans already installed in places like New York, it won’t be long before carrying too much weight is deemed a violation of state and federal laws crafted for our own benefit, enforced to protect us and paid for with our tax dollars. (Grill that red meat while you still can, people. Soon fatty steaks and charcoal burning will be a thing of the past.) Nevada has already passed anti-smoking legislation under the guise of protecting the children. 

Sure, in interviews Halverson doesn’t seem the most together person when it comes to personal dealings and interactions. But what exactly does this have to do with her ability to serve as a judge? Maybe the beating she’s receiving from the press has to do with an endorsement given to her by Richard Ziser’s Nevada Concerned Citizens, a group of free enterprisers who praised her “convictions on the proper and limited role of the judiciary” and “understanding of constitutional principles” in a letter posted on her website.

Maybe Halverson’s decision to bring her own bodyguards to court and lead them around a security check wasn’t the best idea. But when everybody hates you at work, whom are you going to trust? A county-funded bailiff or a private contractor?

And maybe what they say about Halverson’s mistreatment of her former employees is true. But if so, why were her current employees, Sally Owen and Linda John, not seriously questioned, as they recently told KLAS Channel 8? Owen was subpoenaed but never questioned, and John says she might as well “have sat there stark-ass naked and recited the Gettysburg Address.” Could it be the panel already had it in for Halverson? 

And maybe she shouldn’t have fallen asleep on the job. But honestly, is she the only judge to have done any of the abovementioned? We seriously doubt it.

What we don’t doubt is that Halverson’s obesity makes her a prime target for politically correct journalists who should cover this story for what it is: a private feud of slim interest to anyone who doesn’t enjoy media-perpetuated freak shows passed off as news.

The bottom line is that if Halverson was smokin’ hot at 135 pounds yet seriously inept at her job, no one would be doing a thing to get her off the bench.