Elko District Judge Michael Memeo announced his retirement from the bench effective November 1.
First elected to the bench in 1996 in a landslide victory over incumbent Thomas Stringfield, Memeo quickly made a name for himself as a maverick jurist who had little consideration for the local legal establishment.
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Almost from the moment he was sworn in Memeo made it clear that not only he was not going to be part of any good old boy network or apply ‘conventional’ wisdom from the bench.
One of his very first moves on the bench was to hear the report from the Grand Jury impanelled to investigate possible violations of the law by the Federal Forest Service. It was an almost unprecedented decision and gave legal weight to the Sage Brush Rebellion that argued for more local control over the vast swaths of public lands in Nevada.
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Until Memeo took the bench federal and state judges, the Wise Use Movement often accused federal and state judges of working hand in glove with federal bureaucrats without regard to the will of the local people.
By allowing the grand jury to do its work and not quash its subpoenas out of hand Memeo achieved dignified the rebellion but also cleansed it of radical right wing hangers on.
“It has been my experience that the people involved in the public lands movement in Elko County have deeply held beliefs with respect to those issues, but have not embraced some of the more extreme positions we see in other states.” Memeo said at the time. “The fact that we are giving those beliefs respect under the rule of law keeps the extremists out of Nevada.”
Despite being the birthplace of both the Sage Brush Rebellion and the Wise Use Movement Nevada was the only western state and just one of ten nationwide where organized militia movements were not identified according a special report released in 1997 a year after Memeo was elected, by the Anti-Defamation League. The organization which monitors racist and anti-Semitic organizations released its report in the wake of the recent siege around self styled militia type group called the Montana Freemen. While similar groups were said to be organized in virtually every western state, Nevada was the sole exception.
But Memeo’s manner on the bench particularly his disdain for back room plea bargains between defense and prosecuting attorneys earned him the ire of most of the state’s legal establishment.
It was not uncommon for Memeo to throw out a plea bargain he felt was either too lenient on the perpetrator or gave no restitution to the victim.
“I have never been part of the good old boy lawyer network even when I wasn’t a judge,” he said during his last campaign for reelection in 2008. “I never went out for drinks with the lawyers involved in a case after the trial. Maybe I am not a social guy. I know I am in the minority, but I really don’t think lawyers are any smarter than their clients or the jurors.”
In the court room Memeo was also the first Nevada District Judge to allow jurors to submit questions during trials and one of the first to regularly have jurors rate the case after the verdict was in.
He also was the first Nevada District Judge to allow television broadcast and internet webcast of trials and court proceedings.
“I think it is very important that people have access to what actually takes place during a trial rather than read a reporters account of it.” He explained. “It has led to the surprising result that by far the people who watch either the whole trial or large parts of it end up agreeing with the jury’s verdict whether guilty or not guilty.”
The public access to his courtroom may have also had the beneficial side effect of getting the controversial jurist reelected.
Criticized by opponents as on of the most overturned judges in the state, memeo was painted as a hanging judge at best and as an incompetent at worst in the last election.
The videos at least to the majority of the voters told a different story.
“The voters got to see for themselves how I conducted trials and myself,” Memeo said at the time. “And I guess they liked what they saw.”