the chicken mc nugget abuse case gets weirder

at least you always know what to get her for christmas?

TESTIMONY: Girlfriend: Judge is innocent

She inflicted injuries on herself, she says

By LISA KIM BACH
REVIEW-JOURNAL

She plunged Clark County Family Court Judge Steven Jones into controversy with allegations of domestic violence, and now Amy McNair is trying to take it all back.

"He's an innocent man," said a tearful McNair, the first witness called Wednesday during Jones' hearing in Henderson Municipal Court on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge. "I feel horrible about what I've done."

She said she made the accusations against Jones because she was angry that he was breaking up with her over her drinking.

McNair recanted much of what she had said under oath in July, when she unsuccessfully sought to extend a temporary restraining order.

That order was issued after June 20, when Henderson police responded to a 911 call from the home she shared with Jones. Police arrived at the residence to find Jones alone in the master bedroom and McNair bearing the marks of recent injuries.

At the time, McNair said the injuries happened when Jones chucked her down the hall after she tried to make him open the French doors to the bedroom.

On Wednesday, McNair told the people assembled in Judge Ken Proctor's courtroom that she had inflicted the injuries on herself. She said she had rubbed the right side of her face against the carpet so roughly that she made herself vomit from the pain. She had discolored her right eye by "thumbing" herself repeatedly around the socket.

The self-mutilation supported her story to police, McNair said, and is an outgrowth of the chronic alcoholism that nearly drove her to suicide.

On the day of the incident, McNair said, she consumed wine and three fifths of vodka, a binge that began at Family Court, where she was working as a temporary executive assistant to Judge Nicholas Del Vecchio, and continued while she was driving to various errands and salon appointments.

"I never intended to make it to this trial," said McNair, who said she is now in a rehabilitation program that has helped her stay sober for more than 40 days. "I intended to commit suicide and leave a note saying he didn't do it. I was going to drink myself to death."

McNair's recantation transformed her from the prosecution's battered victim to a hostile witness.

Prosecutor Dave Mincavage of the Henderson City Attorney's office was skeptical of the change in McNair's story, which came on the heels of her reconciliation with Jones.

McNair said that the two aren't married or engaged, but that she is once again Jones' live-in girlfriend in the home she began sharing with him more than five years ago. That means McNair no longer has to rely on a domestic violence shelter for housing.

Mincavage said Wednesday that he did not know whether McNair would be charged with perjury. But his frustration was obvious when he questioned McNair about why she did not approach anyone in his office or police about her new version of events before the hearing began.

"Everything she testified to in the TPO (restraining-order) hearing is different than what she said today, isn't that correct Amy?" Mincavage said.

Jones sat next to his attorney, James Jimmerson, throughout McNair's halting testimony, listening without visible reaction while she talked of substance abuse that required extraordinary measures to conceal.

She revealed that she ate or taped sharp cheddar cheese to her body to mask the smell of vodka. The remark caught Mincavage off guard and prompted him to ask: "Where do you tape the cheese?"

(sidebar: what???? times a million)

McNair said the lies she told police about Jones plunged her even more deeply into substance abuse. She said she began using cocaine she would stash in Jones' house. She said she was high during a police interview after the June 20 incident.

"I was so frickin' nervous," McNair said of talking to a female investigator. "At this point, I was so frickin' high on cocaine I would have told her I killed Jimmy Hoffa if it would have got her out of the house any faster."

Lori Fralick, supervisor of victim services for the Reno Police Department, testified that it's not uncommon for victims of domestic violence to recant their stories. Under questioning by Mincavage, Fralick said victims may not realize that their batterers will be arrested. They may be frightened about the loss of financial support or shelter. They may soften because their batterer shows them a more tender side.

She said that in her experience, it was uncommon for someone to make a false report of abuse.

Jimmerson characterized much of what Fralick said as generalizations and pointed out that she had no specific knowledge of the case involving McNair and Jones. She had not interviewed either of them, Jimmerson said.

Jimmerson also attacked McNair's credibility, saying she made a false report of abuse in Seattle that nearly led to a defamation of character lawsuit in 1996. He submitted the case numbers into evidence and said the only reason the lawsuit wasn't filed was because the statute of limitations had expired.

McNair admitted that the incident had occurred, saying it involved her mother's former boyfriend.

The domestic battery charge that threw Jones into the spotlight has also drawn attention to questionable business associations that tie him to a man with two felony criminal cases pending against him in Clark County District Court and a previous attempt to establish a juvenile rehabilitation program with the assistance of a convicted felon.

Jones also has paid a professional price. He resigned this year as Family Court's presiding judge and was restricted from hearing cases that involve domestic violence.

The hearing on the domestic battery charge is expected to continue today with testimony from the Henderson police officer in charge of the investigation.

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