Washoe Co. judge, DA in feud over alleged drug use

RENO " A Washoe County judge running for re-election against a county prosecutor says District Attorney Richard Gammick made false claims in a mass e-mail to the media and others that the judge had used cocaine.

Judge Robert Perry responded with his own widely circulated message saying he was not surprised that Gammick " his opponent's boss " would "launch a personal attack to try to generate free press coverage" of an incident that happened almost 25 years ago. He also said Gammick's statements were designed to hide his opponent's lack of experience and qualifications for the job.

Perry is opposed by Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler, who works for Gammick. Throughout the campaign, the two candidates have attacked each other's records on handling criminal cases. Both accuse the other of being soft on crime.

Perry was backed Thursday by Lee Rowland of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, who said that what Gammick did was "outrageous and highly

inappropriate" due to its partisan nature. Rowland added that Gammick apparently relies on the type of reports that public defenders could only get for their own clients with a court order.

In the e-mail addressed to Perry but sent to hundreds, Gammick said Perry was wrong when he told an interviewer he was not prosecuted for using drugs because of a lack of evidence.

"That statement is misleading since I have in my possession reports from two separate laboratories stating you had cocaine metabolites in your system, which establishes the fact that you had ingested cocaine," Gammick said.

The problem was, Gammick said in his e-mail, he couldn't prove that Perry used the cocaine in Washoe County.

Perry said he was "amazed" that Sattler circulated the story "about a party I attended very briefly nearly a quarter of a century ago." The judge also disputed Gammick's claims.

"I do not recall ever having seen the test results you mention," Perry said in his e-mail to Gammick. "But I do recall being told by you, or someone from the state at the time, that the results were equivocal and that the fact that I had just had spinal surgery and was heavily medicated with prescription narcotics and analgesics explained the issue."

Gammick subsequently told a Reno newspaper that didn't explain the test results.

"They don't medicate people with cocaine. Cocaine is cocaine is cocaine. The tests show cocaine," he told the newspaper.

Perry also challenged Gammick's jurisdiction claim, saying it "is graphic proof of the lack of credibility of this entire attack."

A conviction for being under the influence of a controlled substance does not require proof of where the drug was used, only that the person was under the influence while in Washoe County, where the urine sample was taken, Perry said.

The judge said he has a police report that shows the "supposed informant" told officials that Perry arrived after the drugs were used, "and that he specifically did not identify me as having used them." He also said his fingerprints were not found on the paraphernalia used for ingesting the drugs.

"If you really believed I was guilty, you had an obligation to bring charges and everyone knows you would have," Perry said. "You declined to do so a quarter of a century ago when the credibility of the charge could be tested in court, but now unfairly bring it up when most of the evidence and witnesses are gone."

Gov. Jim Gibbons appointed Perry to the Department 9 bench in 2005 to replace James Hardesty, who was elected to the state supreme court. Perry was unopposed in the 2006 election for the remainder of Hardesty's term.