Suspended LV judge: husband was cleaning up blood

LAS VEGAS " A suspended judge who remains hospitalized after being beaten at her home told police her husband was trying to clean up blood with bleach when officers responded to her 911 call.

District Judge Elizabeth Halverson told police that her husband, Edward, "was using the bleach to clean up all the blood that was splattered in the bedroom from him striking and beating her," a police report said.

Officers discovered an empty bleach bottle in a master bedroom trash can, the report said.

According to the report, arriving officers found the 50-year-old judge sitting on her bed and bleeding profusely, a Las Vegas newspaper reported today.

Officers noted she had "gaping wounds" on her head, and her scalp was partially removed.

She told police her husband tried to kill her by beating her with a frying pan.

The police report said he was bare-chested and wearing camouflage shorts that were covered in blood when officers arrived at the home Thursday night.

"There was also blood on his arms, on his legs and smudges on his back," the report said.

Edward Halverson, 49, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of attempted murder, battery with substantial bodily harm and battery with a deadly weapon.

His court appearance scheduled for today was postponed when Justice of the Peace Karen Bennett-Haron recused herself, citing a possible conflict because of the earlier suspension hearings against his wife by the Judicial Discipline Commission.

Edward Halverson was rescheduled to appear Wednesday before Chief Judge Kathy Hardcastle, who will have to assign the case to an outside judge not connected to the Clark County court system, Bennett-Haron said.

Elizabeth Halverson was suspended from the bench in July 2007, six months after being sworn in. The Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline filed 14 formal charges, including creating a hostile work environment, hiring a technician to try to hack into the courthouse computer system, causing mistrials in two sexual assault cases by improperly meeting with jurors, hiring her own security guards, and falling asleep on the bench.

The commission declared that she posed "a substantial threat to the public or to the administration of justice."

Halverson recently lost a primary bid for re-election and has been awaiting a decision from the commission on whether to sanction her or permanently bar her from the bench.

She has received her $130,000 annual salary while on suspension.