After jury duty shenanigans, lawyer serves jail time

A Henderson lawyer tried to duck jury duty this week and ended up spending a night in jail on a contempt charge.

Kurt Smith, the founder of Smith Legal Group, showed up in District Judge Ron Israel’s courtroom on the 15th floor of the Regional Justice Center on Monday morning with the rest of the potential jurors.

During jury selection, Smith told lawyers in a trial over a property title dispute that jury service would cause a hardship on his business, according to Sandra Jeter, Israel’s judicial executive assistant.

But Smith was picked for the threeday trial anyway.

As the jurors were excused for their first lunch break, Smith passed the tables where the plaintiff and defense attorneys were seated.

“Thanks a lot,” Smith said loud enough for the judge to hear.

Israel called the lawyer back into the courtroom and asked him to return before the end of the lunch break with legal representation.

Israel then found that Smith committed a “breach of the peace, boisterous conduct or violent disturbance in the presence of the court, or in its immediate vicinity, tending to interrupt the due course of the trial or other judicial proceeding.”

Smith’s punishment for contempt, the judge decided: Either observe the rest of the trial from the gallery or spend a night behind bars.

Smith apologized and opted to watch the rest of the day’s testimony, according to court records.

But the trial was slated to resume at 10:30 a.m. the next day, and Smith ar- rived in the courtroom 30 minutes late, saying he had been tied up preparing for his own trial.

The judge promptly ordered Smith to the Clark County Detention Center for 48 hours, but he was released after a 24hour stay, about the same time the trial ended.

According to thelegalsmith.com, Smith practices family law, commercial litigation, personal injury, insurance law, corporate law and bankruptcy.

He earned his law degree from Boyd Law School at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Neither Smith nor his lawyer, Mark Anderson, could be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker