Caught In The Crossfire

Who Is To Blame For A Wife's Death And A Judge's Shooting?

(CBS)  Clearly, Weller was not a popular judge. According to a tally kept by the local bar association - lawyers when given the choice - chose to get Weller off their case.

"Judge Weller had twice as many preemptory challenges as the other family court judges," says the Reno Gazette's Martha Bellilse, who specializes in legal affairs for her newspaper.

Asked what kind of criticism she has heard about Judge Weller, Bellisle says, "That he tended to make decisions quickly, wouldn’t hear both sides."

But being unpopular and having a bias are two different things. Bellisle she doesn't know if there is any evidence the judge made rulings that were more favorable to women. "To the best of my knowledge, I don’t know that he had any bias," she says.

Just two weeks after the shooting, Judge Weller had recovered and held a press conference but he wouldn’t address the Mack case.

"In every case, as much as we try to avoid it, often times there are winners and losers," he told reporters. "My job is to go into the courtroom and decide cases without bias and that’s what I've striven to do the entire time that I've been on the bench."

Dean Tong was part of Darren Mack’s divorce legal team and says Mack had said Weller was a "anti-father's rights judge."

Tong also says Darren was a difficult client. "He seemed like a guy who would have trouble listening to others. He wanted to basically call the shots," he remembers.

Tong, who specializes in custody issues, warned Darren there are certain things that just won’t sit well with any judge when it comes to deciding who gets custody. "He wanted to still continue to do what he was doing, which was the sex swinging on the side," Tong explains.

Tong says he explained to his client that his extra-curricular activities could jeopardize the case.

Mack's response? "He took a deep breath and said 'Well you know, we’ll address it. We’ll talk about it,'" Tong tells Roberts.

Apparently Darren didn’t take the warning seriously. In fact, he later took a trip to the famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch, a legal, licensed brothel, to celebrate his impending divorce

But back at home the party was over.

"When it comes to court, people are very naïve. They don’t understand until it hits them on paper that a judge can alter your life in a New York minute. And that’s what happened here," says Tong.

Judge Weller had repeatedly asked Darren and Charla to try to reach some kind of financial agreement on their own, so he wouldn’t be forced to do it for them. They did hammer out a deal, but when that fell apart the judge stepped in and ordered Darren to pay up.

"He had to pay her a lump sum of $480,000, out of which she was supposed to buy a home and a car. And then over the next five years, she was supposed to receive $10,000 a month in spousal support," Robb explains.

Michael says the ruling left his friend Darren disillusioned and frightened. "Could not believe this was happening. He was about to lose a lot of his money," he says.

Darren was ordered to make that payment of close to half a million dollars to Charla, but soon after that hearing she was dead.

Asked if he thinks Weller's rulings against Darren pushed him over the edge, Michael says, "I can’t say Darren did this. Do I think Judge Weller's rulings added to all that is enough to push someone over the edge? One hundred percent. Yes sir. "