Steve Sanson President of Veterans In Politics International gave testimony to the Nevada Judicial Commission for the appointment to the Nevada Supreme Court:
Good Afternoon
My name is Steve Sanson President of Veterans In Politics International it has always been an honor to speak before this body.
We are very involved in the community especially in judicial races.
Our slogan is “A Judges decision impacts your life on a very personal level for the rest of your life” Don’t you owe it to yourself and family to know who they are?”
Our organizations has three branches, we educated the public on candidates running for elected seats, we champion legislations for Veterans Rights and we expose public corruption.
We hold our jurist to the highest standards.
With that said we are in support of Clark County District Court Judge Elissa Caddish; we have supported her from when she first ran for public office.
We continued to support her when she was nominated to the Federal Bench by the President of the United States and in our opinion she was used as a political pawn and was robbed of that federal seat.
Judge Caddish is an outstanding jurist that has never legislated from the bench and has always enforced the law as written.
Judge Caddish will make an outstanding addition to the Nevada Supreme Court Bench…
Now; hear who we are against.
We are not in support of Clark County District Court Judge Susan Johnson and here is why.
A Judge has a judiciary obligation to disclose any and all campaign contributions. Some of this was discussed during her interview yesterday in front of this body.
But what wasn’t discuss is what happens when Judges takes money from attorneys that have active open cases before their court?
Judge Susan Johnson has about 73 open cases before her court and the law firms on those cases have donated to her husband Judge Eric Johnson.
Donating to her husband is no different than donating to her. It all serves both of their purpose because they are husband and wife living in a single household.
Rule 2.11 of the code of judicial conduct says that a Judge shall disqualify themselves in any proceedings in which the judge’s impartiality might be in questioned.
Rule 4.4 of the code of Ethics says that accepting campaign contributions can serve as the basis for disqualification.
So now the question is where are the Disclosures on the Record and Waivers of all these cases that are currently before Judge Susan Johnson?
Here is another reason why we are against this applicant.
A judge has a moral, judiciary and ethical obligation to turn in anyone who has violated our laws.
When her husband Eric came before this body for an appointment to the bench in his application question 39 page 12 said:
Have you ever been sanctioned, disciplined, and reprimanded, found to have breached an ethics rule or have acted unprofessionally by any judiciary or bar association discipline commission, other professional organization or administrative body or military tribunal?
His answer was a NO.
According to a 2004 San Diego Union Tribune article, Johnson was working on a public corruption case in which the star government informant accused Johnson of taking favors from a strip club that the informant owned.
The Justice Department in Washington D.C. took Johnson off the case and launched an investigation into the allegations.
According to the article, Johnson retaliated and attacked the informant’s credibility. Johnson told reporters that the informant recanted his story. Not only did the Justice Department’s internal affairs lawyers disagree with that statement, but they then launched a second investigation into Johnson for publicly disparaging a star government witness on whose credibility they were relying to get convictions in the pending public corruption case!
A review of Johnson’s application to fill in for Judge Tao shows that he mentioned this public corruption case as one of his top 5 most significant cases.
Please keep in mind that both Eric and Susan Johnson have been married for over 27 years.
The question we should ask Judge Susan Johnson is “Did she know that her husband failed to disclose that he was twice a subject of an investigation by the US Department of Justice to the Nevada Judicial Selection Committee?”
In addition Judge Susan Johnson have been actively involved in her husband’s campaign for retention and I know she mentioned to this body yesterday that she cannot publicly endorsed her husband, but believe me she is doing everything else.
This is also against our election laws and cannons…
I have supporting documentations for my claims.
Thank you for your time and May God continue to bless this great State.
