Attorney and justice of the peace vie for open seat in District Court 

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Noreen DeMonte and civil attorney Danielle Tarmu are hoping to win an open seat in Clark County District Court Department 28.

Judge Ron Israel, who was first elected to the seat in 2010, is not seeking reelection. 

The prospect of running for an open seat attracted Tarmu to the race.

“We have some great judges on the bench. We’re just lacking in civil litigation experience,” says Tarmu, adding she “didn’t want to try to take anybody out. We also perceived my opponent as weaker than other candidates.” 

DeMonte earned her law degree from the Indiana University School of Law and is an 18-year prosecutor. 

She filed to run for Las Vegas Justice Court in 2016 but dropped out of the race.  She was elected to Justice Court in 2022 in a special election and then ran unopposed in 2024. DeMonte presides over a criminal docket. 

“She has no civil experience,” says Tarmu, noting Dept. 28 hears both civil and criminal cases. “Justice Court is not training wheels for District Court. I’ve been emphasizing that more now that I’ve realized some people don’t understand the difference.”

In the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Judging the Judges 2025 survey, 79% of the 87 attorneys who rated DeMonte said she should be retained. Her highest score was for administrative skills while her lowest was for her legal ability.

DeMonte did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.  

Tarmu is a native Las Vegan. She worked in the service industry before attending UNLV’s Boyd School of Law and graduating in 2009. She says her trial experience, appellate work, and knowledge of civil procedure make her the best candidate. 

She acknowledges she has no experience in criminal law. “I was trying to make my way into the public defender’s office where I did externships, but when I graduated there was a government hiring freeze that lasted for several years.”

Tarmu says she also worked for the Innocence Project while in law school. 

“I think I can learn criminal law quickly, because my background is researching the law.” 

She began her career doing insurance defense cases at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, and later joined Robert Eglet’s firm, an opportunity she calls “a dream come true because I wanted to do trial work and Eglet’s office has a great reputation.”

Tarmu now oversees the law and motion practice at Maier Gutierrez & Associates. 

As of July, the first-time candidate had raised $346,000 and had just under $270,000 on hand. 

Her endorsements include the Clark County Deputy Marshals Association, the AFL-CIO, Southern Nevada Building Trades Union, Nevada Police Officer Association, Juvenile Justice Supervisors Association, and PLAN Action. 

DeMonte raised $122,000 as of July and had just under $97,000 in the bank. 

She is endorsed by a dozen police and firefighter unions; labor organizations including Culinary Local 226, SEIU Nevada, Laborers Local 720, and IATSE 720; and community and political groups such as Veterans in Politics, Hispanics in Politics,and the Asian American Group of Las Vegas. 

The Third Branch PAC, which is funded by the Nevada Republican Club, also endorsed DeMonte in the nonpartisan race.  

Additionally, DeMonte is endorsed by Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill, District Attorney Steve Wolfson, Nevada Gaming Commissioner Richard Schonfeld, his law partner David Chesnoff, and attorney Ross Goodman. 

The Current reported earlier this month that DeMonte was endorsed by Hope for Prisoners founder and CEO Jon Ponder, who faces criminal charges for alleged sexual abuse and unauthorized contact with Nevada prison inmates. 

The endorsement has been removed from her website. 

“Given the seriousness of the allegations, the campaign removed his name after his arrest,” says DeMonte’s campaign consultant Tom Letizia. “That reflects no view on the merits of the case or on the judge’s ability to decide it fairly.”

However, DeMonte is not recusing herself from presiding at Ponder’s preliminary hearing Oct. 6, according to court records. 

The Nevada Judicial Canons say a judge “shall disqualify himself or herself in any proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” including when the judge “has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or a party’s lawyer, or personal knowledge of facts that are in dispute in the proceeding.”

Tarmu says DeMonte’s potential conflict “goes well beyond” Ponder’s endorsement to include the support of McMahill and Wolfson, who served on the board of Hope for Prisoners and were aware of sexual misconduct allegations against Ponder in 2020 and were advised to terminate him, but took no action.

Additionally, she notes that Chesnoff, who represented Ponder at his initial appearance, is hosting a fundraiser for DeMonte and is a significant donor. 

Letizia says that like many judges, DeMonte “had a professional connection to Hope for Prisoners through its community work, and she addressed that on the record so the parties could raise any concerns.”

Tarmu counters the case is unique because of DeMonte’s ties to the prosecution and the defense, and contends the “nature of this case and the alleged victims’ and public’s interests being utterly unrepresented requires her to recuse herself and not simply disclose her conflicts.”

Early voting begins Saturday, Oct. 17.