A disciplinary hearing that could strip away Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones’ law license wrapped up Wednesday without a resolution after three days of testimony.
Following eight hours of proceedings Wednesday, Daniel Hooge, chief bar council for the State Bar of Nevada, said the case’s closing arguments would occur Monday.
A decision could come as early as a few hours afterward, Hooge told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Jones declined to comment until deliberations end.
The Nevada State Bar alleges that Jones took fraudulent and deceitful actions related to a controversial housing project proposed by Gypsum Resources LLC.
The county last year agreed to pay developer Jim Rhodes’ Gypsum $80 million to settle lawsuits that alleged that officials had blocked the proposal.
The bar administrative case scrutinized a mass deletion of texts Jones had wiped from his cellphone in the hours following a key vote related to Gypsum in 2019, when he was a newly-minted commissioner.
It also looked at an alleged quid pro quo deal, which came up during litigation, between Jones and then-Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak to delay the development on Blue Mountain Hill.
Both Democrats have denied the allegations.
The bar, a regulatory organization, could discipline Jones with a suspension of his law license, which he’s held since 2003, or disbar him.
An attorney representing Jones — former District Court Judge Rob Bare — and Hooge this week questioned experts, lawyers, lawmakers and others connected to the Gypsum proposal and case.
They outlined the Gypsum project and case in detail.
Lengthy testimony
Some speakers, including Las Vegas City Councilman Brian Knudsen, spoke favorably about Jones character.
Legal expert Benjamin Edwards suggested Wednesday that Jones’ deal with Sisolak amounted to bribery, an allegation Jones’ attorney quickly disputed.
The bar launched its investigation in 2023, shortly after a federal judge sanctioned Jones in the Gypsum case.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Elayna Youchah had declined to recommend an investigation for misconduct, prompting the bar to launch one anyway.
Before he was a commission candidate, Jones was an attorney representing the Save Red Rock conservation group, which was against Rhodes’ proposed project.
Jones filed a lawsuit on behalf of the group and ran his 2018 campaign for a commission seat on stopping the development, court documents say.
He then reached out to Sisolak, asking him to come out against the project in exchange for an endorsement from the conservation group for Sisolak’s gubernatorial campaign, the court documents said.
The bar’s complaint accuses Jones of misconduct, alleging that the messages he deleted — and lied about — could’ve been used as evidence in legal proceedings.
“(Jones) engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, or that is prejudicial to the administration of justice by intentionally destroying evidence and then lying by omission about the destruction,” according to the bar complaint.
‘It was stupid’
Some of the text messages eventually emerged from third parties during discovery, attorneys said.
Jones and Bare said this week that he had done so as a “political cleansing” to move past the controversy.
While Jones maintained that he didn’t remember deleting the messages, he classified it as a “stupid” mistake.
“It was stupid. I wish I wouldn’t have done it,” said Jones, reflecting that he had caused his family, the county and himself “heartache.”
“It wasted a lot of people’s time,” he added.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.