Prosecutor challenging incumbent in Clark County District Court Dept. 8

Clark County Judge Jessica K. Peterson is hoping to retain her seat in District Court Dept. 8 after a bumpy first term. Earlier this year, the Nevada Supreme Court found Peterson violated the First Amendment when she ordered the removal of reporters from her courtroom and altered a court transcript, a move her opponent calls “a tornado warning siren” of an activist judge. 

“Everyone makes mistakes,” Peterson acknowledged during a recent interview with the Current.

In January, Peterson had three Las Vegas Review-Journal reporters removed from the courtroom when they refused to agree not to publish the name of a victim in a high-profile sexual assault trial. The defendant, Nathan Chasing Horse, a former actor who appeared in the movie Dances with Wolves, was found guilty.

Peterson says she was “attempting to balance the rights of the state, the rights of the defendant to confront his accuser, with the rights of the press and the public to be present in the courtroom, and the rights of the victim to protect her anonymity and her safety.” 

The victim, who was a minor when the crime occurred, was a young mother at the time of trial. 

The newspaper later noted it had no intention of publishing the name of the victim, which had already been disclosed in public documents and in open court. However, the decision whether to use the woman’s name, the R-J asserted in its writ to the Supreme Court, was the publication’s to make, not Peterson’s.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Doug Herndon wrote that the court “manifestly abused its discretion in imposing an unconstitutional prior restraint” and in violating the reporters’ First Amendment right to observe and report the trial. 

Herndon wrote that “disturbingly,” Peterson used the victim’s real name in court, but had the transcript altered to appear as though she referred to the woman by a pseudonym. 

Peterson did not respond when asked via email about Herndon’s assertion. 

Peterson’s opponent, Austin Beaumont, calls the judge’s attempt to change the official record “evidence of a judge who is using the power of the bench to enact a personal agenda.” 

Beaumont, a chief deputy district attorney who appears in Peterson’s department, says he declared his candidacy against the judge before the incident in which she violated the First Amendment. 

He has since asked Peterson to recuse from his cases, pending the election, but says she declined. 

In the RJ’s 2025 Judicial Performance Evaluation, 54% of the attorneys who responded recommended Peterson be retained. 

Of the 101 judges evaluated, only five received scores under 50%, while 14 received scores of 90% and above. 

Peterson “could be doing things much, much better, and simply isn’t,” says Beaumont, adding that “temperament and ability to accurately apply the law were her lowest scores. I think that’s consistent with what I’ve seen.” 

Peterson earned her law degree at Thomas M. Cooley School of Law in Michigan and has been in practice for close to two decades. She says “taking off the advocacy hat” and not second- guessing attorney strategies has been the toughest adaptation since taking the bench. 

She cites the Nevada Policy Research Institute’s legal effort to disqualify public employees from serving in the Legislature as her initial case of first impression, meaning there are no precedents in Nevada law. 

The issue – whether the legislative service of teachers, prosecutors, and other public employees violated the separation of powers doctrine – “had been floating around for years and years,” Peterson says. Her decision in favor of allowing public employees to serve was appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court. 

“It was a four-three decision, and we still have a citizen legislature,” Peterson observed.  

Law is a second career for Beaumont, who was in hotel management for 15 years before coming to Nevada. He earned his law degree from the University of Idaho and was admitted to the Nevada Bar in 2016.He says his business knowledge is an asset in his current role prosecuting white collar crime.  

While he has only tried criminal cases, he previously served four years as a law clerk for Judge Kerry Earley and Judge Michael Cherry, where he assisted with civil litigation. 

Beaumont counts the prosecution of a man who claimed he could facilitate legal immigration into the U.S. from Mexico among his most impactful cases.  

“Everyone involved in trying to come into the country legally wants to speed it up,” Beaumont says of the victims, who collectively paid “roughly half a million dollars” before being ghosted. 

“He told them, ‘What are you going to do? Go to the cops? I’ll get you deported if you don’t stop bothering me about your money,’” Beaumont recalls.

“I faced some blowback, not from my office, but from folks who were reaching out saying that these aren’t real victims, because they’re trying to cheat the system in some way,” Beaumont says. “But these are all true victims.”

About a dozen victims appeared by Zoom to speak at sentencing. 

“They were afraid that if they came to court to speak that they’d be deported,” Beaumont said. “I know there were a number of people and organizations that were not pleased, but I stake my reputation on doing what I believe is right – to have their day in court and see justice be done.”

The defendant was sentenced last month to a minimum of seven years in prison.

Beaumont has endorsements from more than a dozen law enforcement unions, the Southern Nevada Building Trades, and Laborers Union 872 in the nonpartisan contest. As of the end of June, he had raised $40,000 and had $3,600 in the bank. 

Peterson, who is endorsed by the Ironworkers union, IATSE, AFL-CIO, as well as PLAN Action and the National Organization for Women, raised $287,000 and had just under $225,000 on hand.  

Early voting begins Oct. 17. Election Day is Nov. 3.