Former Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass’s family decided to hold a private funeral after her death Friday.
But based on word of mouth, 250 people learned the details anyway and showed up for the Monday service, her husband, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, said Tuesday.
That turnout wasn’t a surprise, he said, because his wife — who famously sentenced O.J. Simpson to prison in 2008 — was cherished and well-respected in the community she called home for decades.
“We’re human beings and sometimes we make mistakes and she certainly wasn’t perfect, but if ever there was a situation that came up and you had to make a choice of how to handle it, she always would do the right thing, and I think, in a humbling way, I respected that, because I wasn’t necessarily the person that always did the right thing,” said Wolfson, chuckling a little about the self-referential part.
In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Wolfson reminisced about the decades he shared with Glass, smiling at happy memories, but also becoming emotional at some points. He repeatedly spoke of his wife in the present tense.
Wolfson said Glass, 70, died Friday afternoon after suffering heart failure in a mediation.
Just a few days later, Wolfson was back to work and held a news conference Tuesday about his office’s successful prosecution of Duane Davis, the man found guilty Monday in connection with the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.
Working is therapeutic, he said.
“I plan on being here because I’m the district attorney who has responsibilities,” he said. “I also have a responsibility to my family. I think I’m capable of fulfilling both of those, so I plan to be here every day.”
Sentenced O.J.
After Simpson was convicted in 2008 of kidnapping and robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at Palace Station the year before, Glass ordered him to serve nine to 33 years behind bars.
She later hosted the courtroom show “Swift Justice with Jackie Glass,” replacing Nancy Grace.
Glass was humble, but achieved many accomplishments, Wolfson said, including raising two daughters and having an “outstanding career” as a journalist, lawyer, judge and mediator. “She loved helping people,” he said, and enjoyed her work on a mental health court program.
Wolfson and Glass met 46 years ago when he was a law clerk in the office he would later lead and she was a reporter covering courts for KTNV-TV, Channel 13. Both were dating other people, but they still became friends.
When Glass decided to go to law school at the University of San Diego, they stayed in touch. By her last year in law school, they were planning a wedding. They married in 1984.
“I always knew that we were going to get together,” Wolfson said. “I said to a roommate back then that I’m going to marry this girl.”
He added: “I kind of fell in love with her right away.”
They also became law partners, with Glass handling criminal defense and personal injury cases. They were the first criminal defense attorneys to advertise on television locally, billing themselves as “Wolfson and Glass for the defense,” he said.
Glass was a workaholic, but also an excellent mother to their daughters, Rachel Wolfson and Rebecca Wolfson, he said.
Rachel Wolfson is an actress and comedian. Rebecca Wolfson is a Las Vegas municipal judge.
“We were very good at separating work from home,” Wolfson said. “We both worked all day, but we’d come home and spend time with our children and be good parents to our children.”
‘The best mediator in town’
The couple traveled extensively.
Just six weeks ago, they were in Mexico with family. They also repeatedly visited Africa and recently went on a safari, he said.
Glass fell in love with humpback whales and for close to 15 years in a row, they journeyed to Maui in February for whale-watching season, he said. She was an avid hiker. The couple also loved dogs and had three Labradoodles.
After leaving the bench in 2011, Glass worked as a mediator. “She’s the best mediator in town,” Wolfson said, someone skilled at bringing litigants to a resolution.
Last year, she told him she wanted to work for about five more years.
What set her apart as a mediator, he said, was that “she’s a people person. She’s extremely good with people. She knows how to communicate with people. She knows how to convince people of things.”
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.
