Attorneys for Henry Ruggs filed court docket paperwork Monday saying a choose won’t deal with the previous Raiders broad receiver the identical approach as different defendants charged with DUI.
Ruggs, 23, faces felony DUI expenses in reference to a deadly crash that occurred on November 2, 2021. He’s accused of driving 156 mph seconds earlier than crashing into Tina Tintor’s automobile, killing the girl. 23 years previous and his canine.
The Las Vegas Justice Courtroom separates DUI instances right into a specialised court docket with a presiding choose, which is magistrate Ann Zimmerman beginning in January 2022, court docket information present.
The chief choose assigns different judges to the specialty courts, and this month, magistrate Joe Bonaventure was appointed to supervise the specialty DUI court docket. However Zimmerman requested to proceed presiding over Ruggs’ case, which was the one DUI case he retained after routine reassignments, in keeping with court docket paperwork from Ruggs’ protection attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld.
Chesnoff and Schonfeld filed a short in district court docket on Monday afternoon, alleging that Zimmerman “singled out” Ruggs’ case by treating him otherwise from different defendants and that he violated an administrative order that assigns all DUI instances that don’t contain home violence to a choose.
The go well with asks {that a} district choose vacate the latest order assigning the case to Zimmerman and reassign the case to Bonaventure.
“On condition that there are millions of pending DUI instances, all of which have been transferred to the designated DUI Division, and Mr. Ruggs’ case was singled out and illegally transferred to Choose Zimmerman, an equal safety violation has occurred,” the doc says.
Zimmerman didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Monday afternoon. Chesnoff and Schonfeld are additionally a part of a authorized workforce representing the Las Vegas Overview-Journal in court docket proceedings over slain investigative reporter Jeff German’s private gadgets seized by the Metropolitan Police Division.
Displays filed with the writ on Monday embrace emails between Zimmerman’s attorneys and Ruggs. Within the electronic mail, Zimmerman mentioned he withheld the case as a result of he had made “some substantive rulings” on earlier motions filed by Chesnoff and Schonfeld.
Zimmerman mentioned the choice to maintain the case was made throughout a short dialog he had with Bonaventure, which lasted “possibly 30 seconds,” in keeping with the e-mail. She additionally wrote that there was “nothing nefarious” in regards to the determination.
“It’s not uncommon or extraordinary for a choose to carry a case over to complete listening to it,” he wrote in an electronic mail included with the reveals.
Chesnoff and Schonfeld wrote within the letter that there have been no motions pending choices when the case was reassigned to Bonaventura. The submitting additionally questioned the existence of a specialised court docket for DUI instances.
“It must be famous that the undersigned lawyer has traditionally expressed concern concerning a judicial election course of the place most people elects 15 Justices of the Peace after which the court docket, not most people, assigns just one choose to listen to all instances DUI,” they wrote.
The doc asks to cease the felony proceedings if a district choose can’t rule on the presentation by February 1, when Ruggs’ preliminary listening to is scheduled. The listening to has been postponed a number of occasions due to a delayed report by Metro and authorized challenges, together with a combat over the discharge of medical information associated to Ruggs and his girlfriend, who police mentioned was injured within the crash.
Prosecutors charged Ruggs with DUI leading to loss of life, DUI leading to substantial bodily hurt, two counts of reckless driving leading to loss of life or substantial bodily hurt, and misdemeanor possession of a firearm whereas below affect. Officers mentioned a loaded handgun was present in his automobile.
A listening to on the writ is scheduled for Wednesday morning earlier than District Choose Jennifer Schwartz, court docket information present.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. comply with @k_newberg on Twitter.
