CARSON CITY - The Nevada Supreme Court has upheld the state Commission on Judicial Discipline's decision to remove former Clark County District Judge Fran Fine from office.
The commission took Fine off the bench following a 1988 hearong on allegations that she met privately several times with lawyers, psychologists and others involved in cases before her court. She also appointed a cousin, Faith Garfield, to mediate a case without disclosing their relationship.
Fine served as a Family Court judge in Clark County. The Commission on Judicial Discipline determined she ''discarded her judicial capacity and became an advocate.''
Commissioners also said Fine had been disciplined by them in 1995 for meeting with two other judges in an attempt to influence their decision in a case in which she previously had been a lawyer for one of the parties.
In its decision Thursday, the Supreme Court said Fine displayed ''willful misconduct,'' in part because she committed the same types of offenses in 1998 that she had been disciplined for three years earlier.
''Simply put, Judge Fine should have known better,'' the court said.