Man Who Attack Judge Gets Up to 4 Years in Prison Plus Pending Charges (Update)

Clark County District Court via AP

You may have already seen this video clip of a defendant in Las Vegas leaping over a bench to attack the judge who had just denied him probation. The entire video is about 5 minutes long and there’s a high-pitched alarm going off for most of it.

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The man who attacked the judge is named Deobra Redden and he was in court that day on an attempted battery charge. He had apparently threated to break someone’s kneecaps. His lawyer was asking Judge Mary Kay Holthus for probation because Redden had pleaded guilty but, as you can see, the judge said that didn’t work for her. “I think it’s time that he get a taste of something else because…I just can’t with that history,” Judge Holthus said. She began reading a sentence and that’s when Redden charged at her.

After leaping over the bench, Redden allegedly slammed Holthus’ head against a wall, struck her once on the head, and pulled some hair out of her head, documents said. She then hid under her desk “balled up covering her face.” The ensuing struggle lasted several minutes. Holthus’ marshal received a gash to his head and received 25 stitches.

Following the attack, the Holthus’ courtroom underwent a hazmat cleaning due to blood in the courtroom from the fight.

Redden also hit and punched a corrections officer who was present in the courtroom, documents said. Holthus’ law clerk, Michael Lasso, was cut several times on his hand in the melee.

Yesterday Redden was back in court and Judge Holthus issued a sentence she didn’t get to read out last week.

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He stood with his hands chained to his body and a mesh mask over his head. At least four officers stood by his side. He said nothing during the brief hearing.

Judge Holthus emphasized that Mr. Redden was being sentenced solely on an April 2023 battery charge, to which he had previously pleaded guilty. She said any charges related to his attack last week would be handled by a different judge.

“For purposes of the record,” Judge Holthus said, “I want to make it clear that I am not changing or modifying the sentence I was in the process of imposing last week before I was interrupted by defendant’s actions.”

The sentence announced yesterday was 19 to 48 months. Meanwhile he’s also facing new charges including “battery of a protected person, extortion and intimidating a public official.” He’ll be convicted since the whole thing was caught on video. Also, he apparently admitted he wanted to kill the judge:

After the attack, Redden told a marshal the “judge has it out for me” and “judge is evil,” according to a declaration of arrest report from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The marshal said he also apologized, saying, “I’m sorry you guys had to see that,” the document said…

Redden was eventually taken into custody. Later, while he was being searched, he uttered that he had a bad day and tried to kill the judge, the document said.

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Hopefully he’ll serve a long sentence for the attack consecutively rather than concurrently with his current sentence. Redden is 30 years old and is pretty clearly on a path of violence at this point. He has already been in prison multiple times with three felony convictions and several more misdemeanor convictions. His sister said he had a long history of mental illness:

“He was basically born with mental illness,” his sister Ladonna Daniels said. “Deep inside he’s a good person, he’s just not had the opportunity in life to be surrounded by positive people, meaning his own family.”

Daniels said that she could see that her brother “felt betrayed” because he had pleaded guilty and was starting to get his life back on track and that when Holthus indicated that he would go back to prison, he was “triggered.”

“He was triggered because he seems to have been pleading for his freedom,” Daniels said, later adding: “I think when the judge said I think it’s time you had a ‘taste’ of something,’ it became a trigger, and in his mind, he felt threatened.”

I have no idea if this guy is mentally ill in some way but clearly he was deemed mentally capable enough to go to trial several previous times. Finally, here’s the scene yesterday. As you can see, they weren’t taking any chances the second time around.

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Update: Apparently, Redden’s new charges also include attempted murder.

  • attempted murder against an older person
  • battery on a protected person resulting in substantial bodily harm against an older person
  • extortion
  • intimidating a public officer with threat of force
  • disregarding the safety of a person resulting in substantial bodily harm
  • battery by a probationer or parolee
  • unlawful act regarding fluid by a prisoner in confinement
  • battery on a protected person (6 counts)

If convicted on all of those charges he might be looking at a very long stretch in prison. He’ll be in court on those charges (in front of a different judge) on Feb. 9.

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David Strom 4:40 PM | December 12, 2024
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