Legal Ethics
Lawyer for Computer Worker Reported Hacking Allegations Against Judge
Posted Jan 28, 2008, 09:45 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The formal ethics charges recently filed against Las Vegas Judge Elizabeth Halverson contained previously undisclosed allegations that the judge tried unsuccessfully to hack into the county computer system to access the e-mail of other employees.
A computer worker who says he refused Halverson’s tech request says it was his lawyer who reported Halverson to the Judicial Discipline Commission, the Las Vegas Sun reports.
Gregory Klassoff, who works for Supertech Computers, told the Sun he was sent to Halverson’s chambers last spring with instructions to help her retrieve a missing file. But when he got to the courthouse, she had a different request.
“Halverson didn’t want a missing file,” Klassoff told the newspaper. Instead she wanted e-mails of employees she had clashed with, according to a lawyer with the judicial discipline commission.
Klassoff says he refused, telling Halverson, “If you want me to break into a computer that’s somebody else’s, I’m not going to do that.”
Halverson’s lawyer, William Gammage, says it’s wrong to characterize the request as one for “hacking,” although he couldn’t go in to the details.
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