Apology late in coming

A Las Vegas municipal judge has finally apologized to a woman whom he had ordered detained in 2003 as a way of getting her boyfriend to appear in court.

Judge George Assad, however, did not apologize on his own. He was ordered to do so in June 2008 by the Nevada Supreme Court. Even then he delayed, requesting that the court rehear his case. The court did so and in November reaffirmed its original decision.

It wasnÕt until this summer, eight months after the Supreme CourtÕs final order, that Assad apologized in a letter to the woman, Anne Chrzanowski.

The case began when Chrzanowski spoke up in court, relaying her boyfriendÕs request that he be allowed more time to pay unpaid parking tickets.

Assad alleged that her boyfriend had threatened a court employee in a phone call the previous week, an improper remark because that was not the issue before him. According to transcripts filed by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline, Assad said her boyfriend had to be in court and said to Chrzanowski:

ÒUnless you want to get him down here real quick, weÕre going to have to lock you up until he gets here .. YouÕre going to have to go with my marshal in the back and make a phone call .. Tell

(your boyfriend) youÕre going to jail if he doesnÕt get his butt down here.Ó

The woman was escorted by a court marshal to a confinement area outside the courtroom, handcuffed and ordered to call her boyfriend. She was detained nearly three hours.

The Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline found in 2007 that Assad had violated the Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct and issued him a public reprimand. The Supreme Court dismissed the reprimand but ordered the judge to enroll in an ethics course and apologize to Chrzanowski.

AssadÕs actions were inexcusable, and he should have apologized on his own, within days of the incident. That he waited so long even after the Supreme CourtÕs order does not reflect well on Municipal Court.