LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Las Vegas judge has been fined $1,000 and publicly reprimanded for ethics violations for intervening on behalf of a local lawyer she knew in the woman’s Canadian same-sex divorce case.
Justice of the Peace Melanie Andress-Tobiasson was spared suspension from her job following a tearful admission of wrongdoing during a public hearing earlier this month.
Her lawyer, William Terry, acknowledged Tuesday that Andress-Tobiasson failed to consult both parties in the divorce and mistakenly thought she had authority as a judge to sign a document in February 2014 for Jennifer Suzanne Bolton, even though the marriage was in Canada.
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Bolton died two months later, in April 2014.
Attorney Cal Potter, representing Bolton’s ex-wife, Vivian Wright-Bolton, said Tuesday he believes the discipline amounted to a slap on the wrist for Andress-Tobiasson.
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