Court wants to hear more on Weddell appeal

The Nevada Supreme Court wants to hear more about a Carson City man's failed attempt to remove city officials from office and have employees terminated.

An order signed Wednesday by Justice Robert Rose gave the targets of the unsuccessful removal petition 20 days to respond to Rolland Weddell's request that the court rehear his appeal, which was denied in July.

Carson City District Attorney Noel Waters, one of the targets of Weddell's petition, said Friday afternoon that he had yet to see the supreme court's order, but that his office will submit a response within the 20-day limit.

District Judge Michael Fondi had dismissed Weddell's March 1998 removal petition without a hearing and Weddell filed a one-page notice of appeal with the state Supreme Court. A three-judge panel of high court judges dismissed the appeal in a July 8 order, also without a hearing. Two weeks later, Weddell asked the court for a rehearing on the appeal, which eventually resulted in Wednesday's order seeking responses.

"I think I have somebody's interest over there," Weddell said Friday.

He said all he was able to submit in the initial appeal was a one-page notice of intent to appeal. His request for the rehearing was a 10-page document, in which he argued that the courts are applying two conflicting areas of Nevada law to preclude the state's citizens from being able to remove public officials from office for wrongdoing.

"On one side, they are saying a public official can only be removed for something done wrong in the normal course of his office. Then they come back and say they have immunity for anything they do in office," Weddell said.

Weddell was arrested after using a pistol to make a citizen's arrest in October 1997. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm in an occupied area. Those charges were dismissed.

Waters' office has since appealed the dismissal to the Nevada Supreme Court. Waters said he does not expect a ruling anytime soon.

Since the 1997 event, Weddell has filed motions to have Waters, Sheriff Rod Banister, Chief Deputy District Attorney Anne Langer and the deputies involved removed from their jobs for malfeasance and related offenses. Those actions have been unsuccessful, though some appeals are pending.