LAS VEGAS - Formal charges were filed Wednesday against Clark County District Judge Don Mosley accusing him of using his authority to influence his own child custody battle.
Mosley faces a list of 11 different charges by Mary Boetsch, acting as a special prosecutor for the commission. They include ordering a defendant named Robert D'Amore released from jail on his own recognizance at the request of a friend who had testified in Mosley's own child custody case.
But most of the charges focus on a series of conversations between Mosley and the lawyer for Joseph McLaughlin, a criminal defendant, about McLaughlin's criminal case - "as well as potential testimony Mr. McLaughlin and his wife could provide for your benefit in a custody hearing concerning your son."
The charges detail conversations about Mosley's child custody case with McLaughlin, his lawyers and other parties in the case during the fall of 1997.
At the time, Mosley was the judge handling the man's criminal case in Clark County District Court.
The final charges involve Mosley's alleged attempts to intervene on McLaughlin's behalf after the man was convicted and sentenced.
The complaint says those actions were all serious violations of the Nevada Code of Judicial Ethics and warrant discipline by the state.
