Update March 10, 2025: According to Carson City Court Administrator Max Cortes, Judge Melanie Bruketta is unable to comment on active cases. However, Cortes said the reason Woodrum was not initially ordered to have no contact with the victim was due to an oversight on release paperwork filled out by Carson City jail staff. If an individual is able to post their monetary bail prior to a bail hearing, and prior to having a risk assessment completed by the court system, then conditions of release are set by jail staff rather than the court. If there is a victim in a defendant’s charge, a box labeled “no contact with victim” is meant to be checked by jail staff. In this case, it was not. However, when he appeared to DAS the next morning, that was rectified, and he was ordered to have no contact with the victim by the courts.

Adam Lawson Woodrum, who was employed with the Carson City Public Defender’s office at the time of his arrest, made his first court appearance today in Carson City Justice Court before Judge Melanie Bruketta after being charged for molesting a child. 

Woodrum is a licensed attorney with the state of Nevada and state of Oregon. He previously served as deputy attorney general with the state of Nevada. 

Due to a conflict of interest, Woodrum’s case is being specially prosecuted by the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office.

On Friday, he was given full conditions of being released — over a month after he posted bail. 

An attorney familiar with the case stated that in Carson City, neither attorneys for the state (prosecution) nor the accused (defense) has input on bail conditions for a warrant arrest. 

Instead, judges set the bail conditions on warrant arrests, the attorney said. 

In Woodrum’s case, Judge Thomas Armstrong recused himself due to a conflict of interest.

Bruketta was given the case next, and she set Woodrum’s release conditions, according to the attorney. She is also overseeing the case until it proceeds to District Court.

Release conditions included a $20,000 bail, and typical release conditions relating to following all laws.

However, what was revealed in court today was that a number of conditions typically affixed to charges that involve a victim, especially charges of this magnitude, were absent from his initial bail conditions.

These traditionally include monitoring from the Department of Alternative Sentencing (DAS); submitting to search and seizure without a warrant; agreeing not to possess alcohol, drugs or weapons; GPS monitoring; and most importantly: no contact with the victim. 

The attorney said approximately six hours after Woodrum was arrested on January 22, 2025, he posted bail and was released. If an individual is able to post bail before their 48 hour bail hearing, where additional conditions might be applied, a hearing does not occur.

After Woodrum was released, he began sending push notifications on his calendar to the victim and their family members. A Temporary Protective Order was granted on January 23, 2025, ordering him to have no contact with the victim or family members. 

However, it was not until today that the rest of those conditions were ever discussed by the court.

Carson Now reached out to Bruketta’s office and is awaiting a response on why the initial bail conditions were set in this manner. 

After being released, Woodrum contacted DAS to report when he was leaving the area. He told DAS he was going to Arizona to visit family; however, between February 3 and 28, there was no contact at all between Woodrum and DAS. 

On Friday, the court confirmed this was the first time that the state was able to request conditions, or request changes to the conditions of release. 

Prosecutors asked for bail to be increased to $100,000, GPS monitoring, DAS supervision including search and seizure without warrant, and no drugs, alcohol, or weapons. 

The court denied the request to increase bail, but approved DAS supervision with the proposed conditions.

Carson City DAS will be handling supervision, despite the documented conflict of interest leading to the Douglas County DA’s office having to prosecute the case.

However, the defense, Orrin Johnson, argued against GPS monitoring. He said Woodrum had maintained contact, and therefore it was unnecessary. Johnson said he’d previously had a client who was able to cut off their monitoring device without anyone finding out, indicating GPS device monitoring is useless. 

The court ordered that when Woodrum is within Northern Nevada, he needs to be on GPS monitoring. 

Johnson also said that Woodrum is an upstanding citizen, an attorney of 19 years, whose life has been “upended” and “shattered” by the charges. 

The criminal complaint states that Woodrum committed the crime of lewdness with a child under 16 years of age, a category B felony. 

The complaint states that Woodrum on, about, or between summer 2023 and summer 2024 molested the victim by touching their genitals. The victim was under the age of 16 at the time of the offense.

During the court hearing it was revealed that Woodrum is related to the victim and had been living with the victim and their family during the time of the alleged molestation. 

While addressing the court, the mother stated that she had to speak up against the idea that this was a one-time incident, and that no other abuse occurred. 

She said that the victim and other family members of Woodrum are terrified of being killed by Woodrum because they have no idea who he is now. She said they describe him as an unrecognizable stranger living in a “skin suit” and that Woodrum created a “house of terror” for the family. 

Prosecution said there may be additional charges of a sexual nature coming forward, but none have been filed at this time. 

Orrin said Woodrum plans to return to Arizona, and will remain there until court dates. 

His next court date is scheduled for May 22, 2025.