Jim Duensing

Jim Duensing
Personal Details
Residence:	Nevada
Party:	Libertarian

Raymond James “Jim” Duensing is an American ex-attorney specializing in traffic tickets and is the former Chair of the Libertarian Party of Nevada.

During a 2009 traffic stop, Duensing was tazed and shot three times by a Las Vegas police officer. The officer was allegedly attempting to arrest Duensing over an unpaid traffic citation, but Duensing claims the officer never told him why he was being arrested. Duensing was tazed during his refusal to acquiescence to the arrest, after which he attempted to flee. While he was running away, the officer shot and hit Duensing three times. Duensing disputed the recounting of events provided by the arresting officer, who claimed Duensing pulled a gun on him while running. A witness said that she saw the officer shoot Duensing in the back as he was fleeing and did not see him pull any weapons.

Duensing was later charged with resisting arrest.The case was set to go to trial in October 2014. That year, he announced his candidacy as a Libertarian for Clark County District Attorney, thus running to head up the office that was prosecuting him. Due to the conflict of interest, the trial was thus later moved to shortly after the election.

In the November 2014 election, Duensing received 86,358 votes (27.74%), losing to Democrat Steve Wolfson who received 224,919 votes (72.26%).

Duensing's trial began just days after losing the election. His defense counsel claimed that the arresting officer had shot an unarmed man before, and that he had allegedly displayed racist opinions against Hispanics, referring to undocumented immigrants as a 'disease' (Duensing claims to have provided the officer with his address in Spanish during the encounter). While it was undisputed that Duensing was armed, he claimed to have never pulled any weapons, and the defense argued that the officer could not have seen Duensing pull his firearm because it was located inside his buttoned-up cargo pants. A knife on Duensing's person was also undiscovered until after the shooting. After more than a week of trial proceedings, Duensing was convicted and confined to detention until his January sentencing. Prosecutors asked for a prison sentence of two to five years. In January 2015, Duensing was sentenced to five years of probation and his law license was revoked.