Craig, Christy L

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The right experience, the right choice.This candidate has not submitted a statement.

Christy Craig moved from Ohio to Las Vegas in 1980. She worked in medical laboratories as a medical technician for more than a decade. She is married with two small toddlers. While working full time, she attended UNLV. She attended California Western School of Law in San Diego. Upon her return to Las Vegas, she worked in the civil world at a local casino. In 1998, she began working at the Clark County Public Defender's Office. She quickly rose through the ranks to handle the most difficult cases assigned to the homicide team. She is qualified under Nevada Supreme Court Rule 250 to “first chair” capital murder cases. She has tried over 15 capital and non-capital homicide jury trials to verdict and 25 felony trials to verdict. She has resolved over 35 homicide cases without trial. She has participated in over 5 arguments before the Supreme Court, over 100 preliminary hearings and evidentiary hearings, and over 1000 law/motion and sentencing arguments. She successfully prosecuted a Section 1983 civil rights claim against the State, challenging delays in treatment of mentally-ill pre-trial detainees in conjunction with McLetchie Shell, LLC. While maintaining full-time public defender duties, she was a founding member of Lake’s Crossing Task Force and led the task force charged with identifying solutions to various problems associated with the treatment of mentally-ill, incompetent defendants in Clark County. She was lead Counsel, Burnside v. Nevada Dept. of Health and Human Services, et. al., 2:13-cv-01102-MMD-GWF (D. Nev. 2015) She successfully sued the Department of Health and Human Services, the Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services, and Lake’s Crossing Treatment Center in response to unreasonable delays in the transport of incompetent pretrial detainees from the Clark County Detention Center to Lake’s Crossing for treatment. It resulted in a consent decree in which the State agreed to speedy transport of incompetent defendants and construction of a forensic treatment facility in Southern Nevada. As part of the Burnside consent decree, Stein Hospital opened in November, 2015 in Las Vegas. It has dramatically enhanced the State’s capacity to treat incompetent pre-trial detainees. Since its 2015 opening, Stein Hospital has treated more than 600 mentally-ill defendants. She is the co-creator of the Clark County Competency Court. Together with Assistant District Attorney Chris Lalli and District Judge Jackie Glass, she created Clark County’s competency court. Competency court involved designation of a singular court and development of a singular protocol for adjudicating competency issues in criminal cases. Competency court now functions as the sole arbiter of competency-related matters, thereby increasing the efficient and consistent disposition of cases in which competency issues arise. She was lead counsel in Sims, et. al. v. District Court, 125 Nev. 126 (2009). She successfully challenged procedures unilaterally adopted by Competency Court after inception. Resulted in a ruling protecting the constitutional rights of mentally ill defendants by allowing prior mental health history to be provided to competency evaluators, allowing defense attorneys the right to communicate with competency evaluators, and requiring the court to provide full reports to counsel. She developed a program to divert mentally-ill defendants charged with misdemeanors to Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health. Launched in 2013, the program has successfully diverted over 300 inmates from local jails, thereby avoiding referrals to state-run forensic hospitals and resulting in charge dismissals in majority of cases. She participated in the development of Clark County’s Mental Health Court program. Mental Health Court offers a diversionary alternative to criminal sentences for mentally-ill offenders which helps ensure continued treatment of program participants and reduces recidivism. As the Supervising Director of a complex litigation unit, she managed a team of attorneys and support staff in the development and implementation of impact litigation strategies. This includes both training on, and in-court oversight of, new litigation protocols at all phases of proceedings (including the appellate level). She supervised a team of attorneys and support staff in representation of defendants charged with various felony and misdemeanor offenses. In collaboration with UNLV School of Social Work, she created and managed an intern program for MSW students. Interns assisted in coordinating social services for persons charged with misdemeanor and felony offenses. The program resulted in the creation of permanent, full-time social worker positions in the Clark County Public Defender’s Office, including a team of capital mitigation specialists.

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