A Las Vegas-area judge who was seen in a viral courtroom video throwing himself off the bench after being assaulted is once again in the headlines after dismissing a “fake electors” lawsuit related to the 2020 presidential election.
District Judge Mary Kay Holthus in Clark County, Nevada, on Friday dismissed state indictments against six Republican lawmakers who prosecutors say illegally submitted to Congress a certification certifying former President Donald Trump as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. In doing so, Holthus said Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford’s (D) office chose the wrong venue for the case.
Holthus chairs Clark County, Nevada’s largest county and home to Las Vegas, the state’s most Democratic city.
Richard Wright, an attorney for one of the defendants, state Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, accused Ford of taking the case to a grand jury in Las Vegas instead of Carson City or Reno, the heavily Republican northern Nevada cities where the defendants allegedly signed and submitted fraudulent documents in a plot to overturn President Biden’s victory.
Nevada man faces up to four years in prison after attacking Clark County judge on viral video
According to the defendants’ court filings, the six Republicans met in Carson City, Nevada’s capital, which is in another county.
“What exactly happened gives us jurisdiction?,” Holthus said at Friday’s hearing. The New York Times“So, honestly, from what I’ve read, most of this happened elsewhere.”
The judge halted a trial scheduled for January for the defendants, who include Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Roe, National Party Committeeman Jim DeGraffenried, National Committeeman and Douglas County Commissioner Sean Meehan, Story County Clerk Jim Hindle and Lake Tahoe District Party Member Eileen Rice. Each defendant is charged with presenting a forged document to file and exercising a forged instrument, a felony punishable by up to four to five years in prison.
Defendant Deobra Redden lunges toward Clark County District Judge Mary Kay Holthus during a sentencing hearing on Jan. 3, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Screenshot/Fox News)
The defense has categorically declared the case closed, arguing that taking the case to a grand jury elsewhere now would violate a three-year statute of limitations that expired last December.
The judge found that although McDonald and Law live in Las Vegas, “all of the incidents occurred in the North.”
“Forum shopping? Absolutely,” Rice’s lawyer, Monty Jordana Levy, told The Times.
A spokesman for Ford said the state attorney general’s office disagreed with the judge’s decision and would “immediately appeal.”
This is not the first time a case involving Judge Holthus has attracted national attention.
A few months earlier, Judge Holthus had been presiding over an unrelated case, but on January 3, inside Clark County District Court, he was preparing to announce the sentence to defendant Deobra Redden. But chaos erupted when Redden was denied bail. Redden had been sentenced last year for assault with a baseball bat.
Judge Mary Kay Holthus will preside in the Las Vegas courtroom on March 4, 2024. (Wade Vandervoort/Las Vegas Sun via The Associated Press, File)
In a video obtained by Fox News Digital, Redden’s attorney asked the judge to give his client probation.
“I think it’s time to give him a taste of something else,” Holthus replied.
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The video showed Redden flying over the bench with his arms and legs spread wide and landing on top of the judge.
Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald (right) shakes hands with presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump on Jan. 27, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locker, File)
The defendant grabbed the judge by her hair, but Clerk Michael Russo and several court and prison staff tried to forcefully remove him, some of whom punched him.
Russo was treated for cuts to his hand, the sheriff was hospitalized for a dislocated shoulder and a cut to his forehead, and Holthus was injured but returned to work the next day.
Five days after the attack, Redden’s hands were bound and his face was covered with netting when he was called back to court, where Judge Holthus sentenced him on the assault charge and imposed the maximum four-year prison sentence.
On Feb. 8, a grand jury indicted Redden on nine charges related to the courtroom assault, including attempted murder, assault on a protected person and extortion by threat. KVVU reported.
His lawyer, Karl Arnold, argued for his client’s not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing that Redden was unmedicated and in a “delusional state” at the time of the attack.
In late March, the start of Redden’s trial was postponed from April until at least September.
Deobra Redden, whose video of him attacking District Judge Mary Kay Holthus went viral, will appear again before Judge Holthus for her sentencing on January 8, 2024 at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Nevada is one of seven presidential battleground states where prosecutors have filed “fake electors” lawsuits related to Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign. The others are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. None of those cases are scheduled to go to trial before the 2024 presidential election.
Friday’s decision came after a similar case in Georgia was postponed indefinitely amid an investigation into ties between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and a prosecutor she hired.
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The federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., has also been stayed until the Supreme Court rules on Trump’s immunity claim.
The Nevada lawsuit, filed in December, focuses on the conduct of six defendants. Criminal cases in three other states focus on many more defendants, including 16 in Michigan, 19 in Georgia and 18 in Arizona.
Meehan is the only defendant in Nevada who has not been nominated by the state party as a delegate to the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next month.
Fox News’ Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
