LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Testimony wrapped up on Wednesday in the formal State Bar of Nevada hearing held to determine whether Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones should forfeit his law license.
Witness testimony took up the entire third day of the hearing, but closing arguments still remain. They were scheduled for Monday, after which a three-judge Bar panel will decide what discipline, if any, Jones will face.
VIDEO: Clark County Commissioner Jones at the State Bar of Nevada
The commissioner stands accused by the State Bar of deleting text messages that could have been evidence in a lawsuit between Gypsum Resources, the company that was seeking to develop homes atop Blue Diamond Hill near Red Rock Canyon, and Clark County, where Jones has served on the commission since 2018.
He's also accused of bribery, after he offered the endorsement of environmental groups to then-Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who was running for governor in 2018, in exchange for delaying a vote on the Red Rock development.
Neither Jones nor anyone else was ever charged or convicted of any crimes related to the Red Rock case.
On Wednesday, Jones's attorney Rob Bare called two character witnesses to testify that Jones was an upstanding lawyer and person.
Barbara Buckley, a former Assembly speaker who is now the executive director of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, said that Jones was always quick to volunteer pro bono legal services.
After the valley experienced a crisis of people taking advantage of the guardianship process, Buckley said she reached out to people willing to help.
"So I called Justin. I said, 'I could really use some help,'" Buckley recalled on the stand. "Will you take a case? [He said] yes. Without any hesitation. So that's kind of the Justin I know. Someone who will say yes when it involves something important."
Buckley also said Jones stood by his principles on the county commission, especially during the COVID-19 crisis, when officials worried that evicting tenants would expose them to the virus, and renter protections were needed.
"He did what he thought was right," Buckley said.
Philosophy professor Frank Gard Jameson Jr., agreed, saying he's known Jones through various community programs, including the Circle of Trust. "Through that process, I have gotten to know Justin Jones as someone whose integrity is unimpeachable," Jameson said. "I would put Justin Jones's integrity in the top 10 of the people I know."
The State Bar, however, counters that Jones lacks integrity because of the missing text messages. As a lawyer, Jones should have known the messages would be sought in legal proceedings, and as a public official, he should have known that any texts related to official business should be preserved under the state's public records law.
Jones's attorney admitted Jones deleted the messages, but said he did so as part of a "political cleansing" after a long-running development battle had ended. Jones himself said he does not remember deleting the messages, and denies he intentionally did so to hide evidence.
In addition, the Bar maintains Jones's offer to Sisolak constituted a bribe, although no money was involved.
That point was disputed by longtime Las Vegas defense attorney Dominic Gentile, who said what Jones did was political free speech, entirely protected by the First Amendment. Gentile said Jones's conduct could not be illegal.
"That is absolutely protected activity under Skilling [v. United States] and Citizens United [v. Federal Election Commission]," Gentile said, of two seminal Supreme Court cases dealing with money and free speech.
Gentile also said that if police or prosecutors thought what Jones did was illegal, they would have acted by now. "One would think that if there was truly evidence ... my best guess is that [Clark County District Attorney] Steve Wolfson would bring a case."
But the State Bar's own expert witness, UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law Professor Benjamin Edwards, said a conviction isn't necessary for the Bar panel to consider Jones's conduct.
"You need to be focused on the conduct. You don't need to wait on a conviction," Edwards said. "I think you have enough."
The Bar panel will hear closing arguments on Monday, and then hold deliberations. They can decide to reject the complaints and impose no discipline, all the way up to disbarring Jones, meaning he would lose the right to practice law.
