Tony Abbatangelo - Shady, Shifty, Seedy Las Vegas Attorney Las Vegas Nevada

You don’t want to get on the wrong side of things with former Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo and his political cronies. You could find yourself suddenly locked out of your own house.

That’s what happened to Perry Klein. He and business partner Alan Rapoport collaborated on building a house – well, an 11,000-square-foot mansion – at Lake Las Vegas in Henderson. When the house was built, Klein moved in, and Rapoport moved to cut his ties with his partner.

So Rapoport enlisted a little help – from an assemblyman who worked as a process server, and Judge Abbatangelo. In what is normally a random assignment of legal paperwork, Abbatangelo somehow became the judge who made the decision to sign a temporary protective order that effectively forced Klein out of the house. And it all happened lightning-fast. And, let’s remember, the house is in Henderson. Abbatangelo was a judge in Las Vegas. Two different jurisdictions.

But things backfired on Abbatangelo. In a suit filed by Klein, some interesting things came to light. A man by the name of Jason Huffer proved to be the key. He managed the assemblyman’s election campaign, and he just so happened to run the re-election campaign of Abbatangelo as well.

Hmmmm. Wonder how the assemblyman and the judge got together?

The jury in the case found that Assemblyman Scott Sibley deliberately conspired to violate a citizen's rights. By definition, a conspiracy must involve more than one person.

And who was that other person who aided in this conspiracy? Judge Abbatangelo.

And the jury in the case returned a sobering judgment in favor of Klein. Rapoport was ordered to pay Klein $4.9 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Assemblyman Sibley was ordered to pay Klein $100,000 for abusing his position as a process server.

And Judge Abbatangelo? Well, he was about to come undone in a very different way involving his wife, domestic violence, a public censure, and a four-year ban on serving as a judge. But that’s another story.