‘Gender Factor' Could Decide LV Justice Court Race

By Dana Gentry, Nevada Current

October 10, 2022

Attorney Jessica Goodey received 42,396 votes in the June primary race for Las Vegas Justice Court Dept. 6, just a few hundred more than her closest opponent, former Family Court Judge William Gonzalez.

But the two candidates eliminated in the primary, Augusta Massey and Tracy Hibbets, received more than 67,000 votes combined. Goodey is hoping a good share of the women’s supporters will choose her in the general election.

In the 2020 general election, women prevailed in 22 of 24 Clark County District Court races involving candidates of both genders.

“You want somebody that’s going to be empathetic,” Goodey said. “So I think the perception is that women tend to be nicer on the bench, almost more like motherly figures.”

Gonzalez, who served on the Family Court bench from 2009 to 2014, is counting on his judicial experience to attract support.

Department 6 is currently a civil court, but Gonzalez says he thinks it will hear criminal cases after the election.

“I have more experience on the criminal side,” he said in an interview. “Jessica has really very, very little criminal experience. I don’t know if she’s ever done a preliminary hearing, or a jury trial or bench trial.”

Goodey said she’s handled “everything from business disputes, medical malpractice, personal injury, landlord/tenant, breach of contract – really all forms of civil cases that would be handled by this court.”

“Because this is a civil department, I think we need judges with civil experience handling the types of cases that they will be deciding,” she said.

Goodey earned a law degree from the University of Nevada William S. Boyd School of Law in 2010. She practices primarily in personal injury. She says she decided to run for the bench in Dept. 6 because of delays in getting cases resolved. Her website says it takes three and a half years on average to get a case to trial.

As a Las Vegas Municipal Court alternate and a hearing master in small claims court, Goodey says she routinely sees litigants who are representing themselves.

“Slowing things down a bit while you’re in court to make sure that the pro se litigant understands what’s happening and what is expected of them – I think helps a lot,” she said. “This is new to them and so they don’t always understand the lingo.”

Goodey raised $53,785 through June and says she expects to report a cumulative total of $70,000 for the next period. She spent $46,800 through June.

She is endorsed by more than a dozen organizations, including Culinary Local 226, SEIU Nevada, the Southern Nevada Central Labor Council, Nevada NOW, PLAN Action and Independent Black Voters.

Gonzalez was appointed to the Family Court bench in 2009 by then-Gov. Jim Gibbons, elected in 2010 and defeated in his 2014 re-election bid. He also lost a Family Court race to Dawn Throne in 2020.

“I wasn’t sure how I would be received after being defeated,” Gonzalez says, adding he’s been pleasantly surprised by support for his candidacy, including endorsements from Laborers 872 and a variety of law enforcement unions, including the Las Vegas Police Protective Association.

He raised $19,765 through June, and spent $20,733.

“I’ve actually raised a lot more than I did initially, so in the next filing on October 15, you’re going to see a lot more money come in,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez, who was admitted to the Nevada Bar in 1997, has an error rate of 36.36% out of 48 cases appealed, according to Our Nevada Judges, an organization that tracks judicial records.

An error rate of less than 10% warrants a positive recognition by the organization.

He received a 68% retention rating in the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Judging the Judges poll, slightly lower than the 71% average.

“There were judges who scored a lot lower,” he said. “I was pretty much average. I think I had the same amount of judges below me as I did above me.”

In 2010, he was one of 11 candidates represented by campaign operative Dave Thomas found to have violated judicial ethics by raising money as a group. That group included Thomas’ wife, District Judge Nancy Allf.

He ignored a number of requests for interviews during his 2020 campaign and even during the 2022 primaries.

“In hindsight, I should have responded last time. I don’t have a good answer for why,” he said, except that he was banking on name recognition. “This time I’m trying to respond and get as much information out there for the community. It’s very difficult in judicial races.”

Nevada Current, a nonprofit, online source of political news and commentary, documents the policies, institutions and systems that affect Nevadans’ daily lives. The Current is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.