Vegas judge under fire for hot tub social media post with public defenders. (NSFW?)

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A Las Vegas judge, who ran for office with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America, is under fire for her social media posts, where she sat alongside two public defenders in a hot tub and complained she had to work early following a Billie Eilish concert.

Clark County District Court Judge Erika Ballou was handed a formal statement of charges by the Nevada Commission of Judicial Discipline for two separate social media posts that jeopardized the public’s confidence in her judicial judgment as part of an ethics violation probe.

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Ballou, who was sworn in on January 4, 2021, faces two counts of violating the “Revised Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct,” according to the formal charges viewed by The Post.

The judge had attended the “Life is Beautiful” music festival on September 19, 2021 and made an “inappropriate statement about her judicial duties on social media,” at 10:46 p.m., according to the formal charges viewed by The Post.

“Life is STILL beautiful, despite the fact that Bille Eilish doesn’t START for 30 minutes and I have an 8:30 calendar tomorrow,” Ballou allegedly posted on Instagram, along with the hashtags “VacateTheS–tOuttaOutofCustodyCases” and “WherelnTheWorldIsCarmenSanDiego.”

The Commission found Ballou’s post violated three of the four “Canons” in the judicial conduct code including Canon 1, Rule 1.1: “A judge shall uphold and promote the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.”

The judicial code also requires that “the duties of judicial office, as prescribed by law, shall take precedence over all of a judge’s personal and extrajudicial activities.”

The post also violated the requirement that a judge’s private life take a back seat to judicial activities.

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Ballou’s second count refers to a Facebook post the judge made along with two individuals, identified by the Commission as public defenders, in April 2022.

The post captured a bikini-clad Ballou with her arm around a shirtless Robson Hauers as another woman, Shauna Browers, stands beside them in a hot tub.

“Robson is surrounded by great tits,” the post is captioned.

Hauser is a Deputy Public Defender with the Clark County Public Defender’s Office, while Brouwers serves as an Attorney with the same office, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

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Before her judicial career, Ballou was a public defender and social justice organizer as well as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, according to the outlet.

As a public defender, Ballou had a form of protest in 2016 after she defied the orders of a judge who asked her to remove her “Black Lives Matter” button from her shirt, as political or opinion protest statements aren’t allowed in the courtroom.

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