WINNEMUCCA — Free from the restraints of a lawsuit before the Nevada Supreme Court, Judge Richard Wagner went before the Humboldt County Commissioners on Monday (May 17) to outline the potential impact from Stermitz v. Wagner. 

Matt Stermitz is the Humboldt County Public Defender who sued the judge over the reassigning of cases.  Because of that lawsuit, Wagner has not been able to publicly address certain issues -- until recently.

The judge carried this message:  the lawsuit could end up costing taxpayers a significant sum of money.  The judge said a conservative estimate might be in the $60,000-80,000 range with attorney fees and the potential retrying of cases.

How did things go so terribly wrong between the judge and the public defender? Wagner took the opportunity to tell his side to the commissioners.

EVENTS LEADING TO THE NSC  The issues between the judge and the public defender didn’t begin with Stermitz v Wagner. As a matter of fact, Wagner carried in a file of lawsuits and paperwork Stermitz had been filing against the judge for nearly two years.

The first lawsuit -- from almost two years ago -- stemmed from comments made by the judge who indicated he would no longer be accepting no contest pleas in sex-offense cases. Stermitz heard the remark and filed suit with the Nevada Supreme Court asking them to prevent Wagner from taking that course of action. The NSC denied the writ because, as Wagner noted, it's up to the judge whether or not a no contest plea will be accepted.

Wagner noted of the incident that Stermitz didn’t even have a client impacted by the no-contest decision when he filed suit. 

That was the first of many skirmishes between the two men. Wagner noted the public defender’s first reaction to decisions he didn't like appeared to be to file a lawsuit instead of raising an objection in court.

Humboldt County Administrator Bill Deist  was made aware of the problems between Stermitz, an employee of Humboldt County, and Judge Wagner. In March 2009 Deist asked Wagner if the matter could be worked out; the judge replied in the affirmative.

However, Stermitz acted first.

“The very next day I get served (with a document) and the way it was served was that Mr. Stermitz, or someone acting on his behalf, sneaked into my chambers and put a document on my desk in the form of motion for sanctions,” Wagner said.

Wagner made the document available to the county commissioners.

The motion for sanctions to the Nevada Supreme Court accused Wagner of being unethical and dishonest. The judge took immediate action and recused himself from all of Stermitz’s cases.

What Judge Wagner did not know, and would not know for some time, is that the document had never been filed with the Nevada Supreme Court.

Wagner commented, “It wasn’t until much later that I learned something that I have never seen in my life as an attorney or as a judge, and that is he used deception in the fact he never filed this with the Supreme Court.”

Stermitz later filed a motion to withdraw the motion that had never been filed, Wagner said.

The commissioners appeared to struggle with the importance of this, so Judge Wagner explained.

“The reason that it’s important is the minute I saw the motion for sanctions … sanctions are imposed because somebody did something unethical, that’s what he alleged … I knew at that minute I could no longer sit on his cases,” Wagner said.

After recusing himself from all of Stermitz's cases, Judge Wagner issued a second order reassigning all of the public defender cases to another attorney.

Stermitz filed suit and the Nevada Supreme Court ultimately ruled Wagner exceeded his authority in reassigning cases, but he was correct to recuse himself. Wagner, along with other interested parties, are seeking a rehearing on some key issues not addressed in the original suit.

CREATING HAVOC  Wagner painted a picture of the public defender as someone who acted outside of the duties for which he was hired.

Wagner commented, “Mr. Stermitz is on a track that I call prisoner litigation, which is to bring as much havoc to the system as possible.”

Wagner accused the public defender of attacking the credentials of the juvenile court master and calling into question whether he was truly a master. In addition, the judge accused the public defender of attempting to prevent the Pershing County public defender from receiving his attorney’s license to practice in Nevada. Wagner called Stermitz’s attempted interference with the Pershing County public defender “shameful”.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with representation of indigents,” Wagner said, “what is has to do with is, and we get it all the time from prisoners, lets see if we can bog down the system.”

In addition, Wagner accused Stermitz of corresponding with indigent clients who were being represented by the Pershing County public defender in order to criticize him and the judge.

He also alleged Stermitz was working against the programming initiated in the 6^th Judicial District Court that was implemented to help children and families in crisis.

THE COMMISSIONERS  Throughout the dialogue Judge Wagner repeatedly noted he tried to mitigate the situation with Deist and worked under the assumption Deist was keeping the county commissioners informed.

That did not appear to be the case.

“If I had an employee doing that to you folks I promise you I would not let it go on,” Wagner said. “It’s really a shameful thing that’s happening here and you’re the only people who can do something about it.  There needs to be some type of accountability so that he does not simply continue to do this.”

As a portend of things to come, Judge Wagner advised the commissioners they could expect more legal bills if the attacks from Stermitz continue.

“I’m not going to stand by and watch him attack Sam Matheny (the juvenile court judge) as he does me. I’m not going to stand by and watch him make attacks on other projects and programs we’re doing because apparently he has been emboldened to the point where he believes my silence is a sign of weakness. It is not.”

Previous Posts: 

NSC issues decision in dispute between judge and public defender

NSC hears arguments in Stermitz v Wagner

NSC to hear arguments in court dispute