A Carson City judge in early January dismissed a lawsuit filed by Gov. Joe Lombardo challenging a decision from the Nevada Commission on Ethics to censure and fine the governor for using his Clark County sheriff uniform and badge on the 2022 campaign trail — but attorneys for Lombardo said they were unaware of the court’s order until Wednesday and plan to appeal.
Judge James Russell’s order, which ethics commission attorneys were also unaware of until Tuesday, dismissed the appeal on procedural grounds. His order stated that Lombardo’s attorneys failed to “comply with statutory procedural requirements” of serving the lawsuit to the Nevada Attorney General’s Office within 45 days of notifying the ethics commission that they intended to appeal the decision to censure and fine the Republican governor $20,000 last year.
An attorney for the ethics commission filed a motion to dismiss the appeal on Dec. 7, with legal arguments largely based on the failure to serve the Attorney General’s Office with a lawsuit. Russell granted the ethics commission’s motion to dismiss the case on Jan. 2. In a Wednesday court filing , the ethics commission attorney wrote in a footnote that the commission was unaware that the order had been granted until Tuesday when attorneys checked the case docket, saw a dismissal had been granted and then found a copy of it in their physical mail.