LAS VEGAS (AP) - Court records published in Nevada on Tuesday say a judge outside Las Vegas will decide if a new trial should be awarded to a convicted felon who alleged widespread corruption within the Clark County justice system.
In Nov. 2020, the Nevada Supreme Court denied a challenge by Marlon Brown, 38, over his decades-long prison sentence, but his attorney Michael McAvoy Amaya continued his efforts to remove the judge overseeing the case, District Judge Michelle Leavitt, and void her orders in the case, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
On Tuesday, a Clark County District Court judge in Las Vegas issued a change-of-venue order due to allegations of corruption involving Leavitt, which means Leavitt could be a witness in Brown’s post-conviction hearings.
Leavitt in recent years oversaw Brown’s trial on battery and kidnapping charges for shooting his ex-girlfriend in the leg and ordered him to serve up to 45 years behind bars. Leavitt also sealed part of his records and intervened in his appeal.
District Court Chief Judge Linda Bell said she issued the change-of-venue order “to avoid the appearance of impropriety.”
Brown has alleged that Leavitt’s daughter had ties to a business he owned, which made the judge willing to “engage in fraud and deceit to cover her tracks.” Another judge, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melanie Tobiasson, has said the now-closed clothing store owned by Brown was a front for an unlicensed club where teens drank, used drugs and engaged in prostitution.
Leavitt through her lawyers has denied the accusations against her, calling them “blatantly false and defamatory.”
Bell in her Tuesday decision cited the Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct and a decision from the Supreme Court Chief Justice James Hardesty.
Brown’s attorney, meanwhile, called the reassignment “an indication that our claims have merit, and he should get a new trial.”
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This story has been corrected to reflect that a Clark County District Court judge in Las Vegas granted the change-of-venue request, not a federal judge.
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