Overview
- In early April, a confrontation in an Idaho Falls parking lot ended with Judge Ryan D. Nelson allegedly grabbing a man’s glasses, throwing them across the asphalt, and stomping on them.
- The Idaho Falls city prosecutor filed misdemeanor counts of battery and malicious injury to property on April 22, according to court records.
- Nelson pleaded not guilty on May 13 and is scheduled to appear for a pretrial conference on June 18.
- Local reporting published surveillance video and a police affidavit that say Nelson admitted knocking the glasses off the man’s head and stomping them while denying he touched the man.
- Nelson, a 2018 Trump nominee to the Ninth Circuit, continues to hear cases for now and the misdemeanor charges do not automatically remove a federal judge from the bench, which could shape calls for further review or disciplinary action.