Nevada Sheriff Faces Contempt After REFUSING Judge’s Order to Release Violent Repeat Offender

In Las Vegas, a sheriff and judge are at odds over the potential release of a career criminal.

Justice Court Judge Eric Goodman has ordered convicted felon Joshua Sanchez-Lopez to be set free with an ankle monitor.

But, Sheriff Kevin McMahill isn’t letting that happen, claiming he is “too dangerous for our streets.”

Now, the police department is facing sanctions for contempt because they refused the judge’s reckless order.

Here are the details:

NEVADA SHERIFF FACES CONTEMPT FOR REFUSING TO RELEASE VIOLENT CAREER CRIMINAL

Joshua Sanchez-Lopez is a convicted felon with 35 prior arrests

Judge Eric Goodman ordered him relased with an ankle monitor

But Sheriff Kevin McMahill says he is NOT releasing Sanchez because he’s… pic.twitter.com/2rHrd3V3Hr

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 15, 2026

NEVADA SHERIFF FACES CONTEMPT FOR REFUSING TO RELEASE VIOLENT CAREER CRIMINAL

Joshua Sanchez-Lopez is a convicted felon with 35 prior arrests

Judge Eric Goodman ordered him relased with an ankle monitor

But Sheriff Kevin McMahill says he is NOT releasing Sanchez because he’s too dangerous. The Dept is now under threat of being sanctioned for contempt.

Kudos to this sheriff!

In case you are curious about this criminal’s history, the guy has a lengthy record with 35 prior arrests!

Sanchez-Lopez most recently served time in prison for drug and involuntary manslaughter charges.

After getting out, he was arrested again in January for grand larceny of a motor vehicle.

8 News Now has more:

Sanchez-Lopez, 36, is a convicted felon who most recently served prison time on drug and involuntary manslaughter charges, according to records. Metro said his record includes 35 arrests.

“We have to take a look at that and say, ‘Is this somebody who our electronic supervision program can monitor safely in the community?’” said Mike Dickerson, assistant general counsel at Metro. “This is an issue of public safety.”

Metro arrested Sanchez-Lopez on a warrant in January on a charge of grand larceny of a motor vehicle. During a bench warrant return hearing, Goodman set bail at $25,000, ordering Sanchez-Lopez to Metro’s electronic monitoring program should he post bond.

The program allows defendants to leave jail and wear an ankle bracelet. Various levels of the program require different levels of confinement. Goodman ordered Sanchez-Lopez to high-level electronic monitoring, which Dickerson described as house arrest. About 450 defendants are in the program at a time.

On Jan. 29, Metro informed Goodman it declined to release Sanchez-Lopez to the program, citing prior bench warrants, failures to appear in court and violations of the department’s program.

In their letter, Metro points to a 2020 arrest where they said Sanchez-Lopez ran from officers armed with a gun. He later posted on Snapchat, showing his ankle monitor, and said he “got chased again,” according to documents.

On Feb. 5, Goodman ordered Metro to release Sanchez-Lopez to the program, adding the department could be sanctioned for contempt should it fail to comply.

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Metro believes a state law gives approval to the sheriff. The court and Sanchez-Lopez’s public defender said the decision is up to a judge.

“Metro’s argument is flat wrong,” Sanchez-Lopez’s public defender, P. David Westbrook said in a statement. “It is the job of the elected judge to decide whether someone charged with a crime should be released and under what conditions. The idea that a Metro employee can overrule a judge’s release order and keep someone locked up should worry anyone who believes in the Constitution and the rule of law.”

“There’s absolutely competing narratives about public safety occurring in our community,” Dickerson said. “There’s different approaches too.”

This local news clip dove deeper into the conflict between the sheriff and judge:

🚨 BREAKING: Nevada Sheriff Kevin McMahill is being praised nationwide for REFUSING to release a convicted felon with 35 prior arrests — despite his release being ordered by a leftist judge

He's now being threatened with CONTEMPT for protecting his county.

BRAVO, SHERIFF! 👏🏻🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/7GVM8GyHsI

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 15, 2026

We’ve seen so many cases where violent repeat offenders have been cut slack by judges, only to murder or severely injure someone after returning to the streets.

Take Iryna Zarutska, for just one example.

This sheriff is stepping up to make sure something like that does not happen in his city.

We need more like him.

Sheriff McMahill is getting a lot of praise for standing up for what’s right and not letting a dangerous criminal loose on the streets.

Take a look at some of these responses from people online:

Rogue judges are a problem. Thank you Sheriff for holding your ground!

— JustSoYouKnow✝️🇺🇸🦅 (@JSYKRobert) March 15, 2026

Law and order shouldn’t be optional.

A sheriff’s duty is to protect the people — not bow to political whims.

Threatening him for doing his job exposes the real problem: judges making communities less safe.

— Ifedayo (@Naija_RealTalk) March 15, 2026

Yes sir! GOD Bless. Arrest the Judge instead. Follow the Law, or you go to jail Judge.

— Mark Dries (@MarkDries1) March 15, 2026

Your thoughts?