Gloria Maria Navarro (born May 2, 1967) is a United States district judge of the

United States District Court for the District of Nevada United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

Early life and education

Born in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, Navarro earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in 1989 from the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes th ...

and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

from the Arizona State University College of Law (now the

Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (ASU Law) is one of the professional graduate schools at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. The school is located in the Beus Center for Law and Society on ASU's downtown Phoenix campus. The law ...

) in 1992.President Obama Nominates Judge Timothy Black, Gloria Navarro for District Court Bench
'' whitehouse.gov'' (December 24, 2009). In 1991, Navarro worked as a legal extern for United States District Judge Philip Martin Pro.

Professional career

In 1993, Navarro worked part-time as a mitigation investigator for a Las Vegas law firm and as a contract law clerk for several organizations. From 1994 until 1996, Navarro worked as an associate attorney for a Las Vegas law firm, and she then worked as a sole practitioner in Las Vegas from 1996 until 2001. From 2001 until 2004, Navarro served as a Deputy Special Public Defender for

Clark County, Nevada Clark County is located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,265,461. Most of the county population resides in the Las Vegas Census County Divisions, which hold 1,771,945 people as of the 2010 Census, acros ...

. Beginning in 2005, she served as a Chief Deputy District Attorney for the Civil Division in the Clark County District Attorney's office.

Federal judicial service

On September 11, 2009, Sen.

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...

contacted Navarro to inquire about her interest in serving on the federal bench. After a video conference interview with Reid, the senator told Navarro on September 22, 2009, that he would be recommending her to President Obama for consideration to serve as a judge on the

. On December 24, 2009, Obama formally nominated Navarro to the vacancy, which was created by the resignation of Judge

Brian Sandoval Brian Edward Sandoval (; born August 5, 1963) is an American politician, academic administrator, and former federal judge who served as the 29th Governor of Nevada from 2011 to 2019. A graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, Sandoval began ...

.Carri Geer Thevenot
Judiciary members to query LV lawyer
''

Las Vegas Review-Journal The ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' is a daily subscription newspaper published in Las Vegas, Nevada, since 1909. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada and one of two daily newspapers in the Las Vegas area. The ''Review-Journal'' ...

'' (February 11, 2010). On March 4, 2010, the

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations ...

voted to send Navarro's nomination to the full Senate for consideration.Steve Kanigher
Senate Judiciary Committee approves nomination of Gloria Navarro for federal judgeship
''

Las Vegas Sun The ''Las Vegas Sun'' is one of the Las Vegas Valley's two daily subscription newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group. The paper published afternoons on weekdays from 1990 to 2005 and is no ...

''. On May 5, 2010, the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

voted to confirm her by a 98–0 vote. She received her commission on May 6, 2010. On January 1, 2014 Navarro succeeded

Robert Clive Jones Robert Clive Jones (born July 21, 1947) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. He served as the Chief United States District Judge from 2011 to 2014. Biography Jones was born in ...

as Chief Judge. She served as Chief Judge until September 2019.

Bunkerville standoff trials

In the first Bunkerville standoff case in 2017, Navarro declared a mistrial after a jury convicted two men of some of the counts in the indictment and reported that they were "hopelessly deadlocked" on the remaining counts. She scheduled retrials of the defendants in that trial for whom no verdict was reached, and trials of the remaining 11 defendants for June 26, 2017. On August 22, 2017, the remaining 4 defendants were found not guilty, and set free after being held without bail since 2016. On January 8, 2018, Judge Navarro dismissed the charges against the remaining 4 defendants "with prejudice", meaning they could not be tried again for the same charges. Navarro found that both prosecutors and the FBI had failed to turn over

exculpatory evidence Exculpatory evidence is evidence favorable to the defendant in a criminal trial that exonerates or tends to exonerate the defendant of guilt. It is the opposite of inculpatory evidence, which tends to present guilt. In many countries, includi ...

to the defense, and had therefore violated a "universal sense of justice" to an extent that nothing short of outright dismissal was appropriate.

References

External links