Socialist judge faces ethics violation for hot-tub photo with public defenders, posts Cardi B lyrics in response

A Las Vegas judge was accused of ethics violations after two of her social media posts were called into question, including one in which she posed in a hot tub with public defenders.

Clark County District Court Judge Erika Ballou faced ethics charges after the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline filed a formal statement against her.

The two charges reference her social media posts, the first of which appeared to state that defendants who are not in custody should not be charged, 8 News Now reported.

The Nevada commission cited an Instagram post of a selfie from 2021 with the caption "Life is STILL beautiful, despite the fact that Billie Eilish doesn’t start for 30 minutes and I have an 8:30 calendar tomorrow."

This was coupled with hashtags "Vacate The S**t Outta Out of Custody Cases" and "Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego."

Also called into question by the commission was a 2022 Facebook post.

The ethics charge reportedly read, "Judge Ballou posted a photograph of her Facebook page of herself in a hot tub with two public defenders, Shana Brouwers and Robson Hauser, with the caption, ‘Robson is surrounded by great tits.'"

A Clark County District Court representative said Ballou would "forgo the opportunity" to comment, however the judge made additional posts on Facebook following the accusations of ethics violations.

"Went from makin’ tuna sandwiches to makin’ the news," Ballou posted on Facebook, which is a lyric from Cardi B song "Get Up 10," Barstool Sports reported. "I started speakin’ my mind and tripled my views," she continued.

"Get money, go hard, you’re motherf**king right. Never been a fraud in my motherf**king life. Get money, go hard, damn f**king right. Stunt on these bitches out of motherf**king spite," the judge's post concluded.

The judge is alleged to have violated three rules with her first post, including that a judge is required to promote public confidence and avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety. As well, judges must put duties of the judicial office before personal and extrajudicial activities and show that they can remain impartial.

For her hot-tub photo, the commission claimed the judge violated the rules requiring a judge to promote public confidence and avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety, as well. In addition, the judge must show that she cannot be influenced and also must not participate in activities that would appear to undermine the judge’s independence, integrity, or impartiality.

Hearing dates have not been set yet.

In July 2022, the Las Vegas Police union called for the judge's resignation after she said that a black police officer didn't want to be around cops, nor did she.

"You're a black man in America. You know you don’t want to be nowhere where cops are," Ballou reportedly said. "You know you don’t want to be nowhere where cops are cause I know I don’t, and I’m a middle-aged, middle-class black woman. I don’t want to be around where the cops are because I don’t know if I’m going to walk away alive or not," she added.

Before she was sworn in as a judge in January 2021, Ballou was reportedly a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

In 2016, as a public defender, Ballou refused to remove a Black Lives Matter pin despite a judge's order.

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