LAS VEGAS (KLAS) -- Erika Ballou, the embattled district court judge who repeatedly defied state supreme court orders to send a criminal defendant back to jail, commented publicly for the first time Thursday, defending her actions in a criminal case that led to the district attorney calling for her removal from the bench.

At a public hearing of the state Commission on Judicial Discipline, Ballou defended her actions in a case regarding a woman—Mia Christman—who pleaded guilty to two felony charges and started serving, at minimum, a 10-year prison sentence in 2016 as part of a violent crime spree when Christman was 18.

Ballou, whose testimony was at times feisty, essentially argued that in allowing Christman to remain out of prison, she was showing compassion based on Christman's troubled

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