Washoe County District Court Judge David Hardy denied on Tuesday a request by the anonymous “John Doe” to delay disclosing his identity.
Doe is accused of hiring David McNeely, private investigator with Five Alpha Industries, to track by GPS unit Mayor Hillary Schieve and former County Commissioner Vaughn Hartung. He admitted hiring McNeely but denied knowledge of the GPS tracker.
Doe hired a Las Vegas attorney last week after Hardy ruled Doe’s identity must be revealed by May 12. Doe’s attorney attempted to negotiate with Schieve and Hartung’s attorney to delay the revealing of Doe’s identity.
“This unfortunately seems to be an emergency of your client’s own making, and I think it’s unreasonable to expect an expedited response when your client has clearly been aware of proceedings for some time and could have joined at any time,” the mayor’s attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner, wrote to Doe’s attorney, Jeffrey Barr.
Barr then filed a motion with the court requesting a delay.
“Because of the impending May 12 deadline, and because the revelation of John Doe’s identity implicates serious First Amendment concerns, counsel for John Doe requested that Plaintiffs’ counsel make himself or one of the other three attorneys on this matter available sooner than May 10 to meet and confer,” Barr wrote.
He then blamed Hosmer-Henner.
“An order shortening time is necessary in this case because John Doe is in an untenable position due to Plaintiffs’ refusal to meet and confer in a timely fashion prior to the May 12 compliance deadline,” Barr added.
Hardy didn’t buy it.
“It is regrettable that Defendant John Doe’s ‘serious First Amendment concerns’ were not presented in time for a thorough review,” Hardy responded. “Absent a stay pending appellate review, to now include review of this order, this Court will enforce its deadline for Mr. McNeely to comply by May 12, 2023.”
