By KEN RITTER

LAS VEGAS — In an earlier time, Jackie Glass would have been covering O.J. Simpson’s trial instead of presiding over it.

Before becoming a lawyer and being elected a Clark County District Court judge, Glass was a television journalist covering courts in Las Vegas. She met her husband, then a deputy district attorney and now a Las Vegas city councilman, in the courthouse hallways.

“She’s got some experience covering and being around high-profile cases,” said Steve Wolfson, a defense lawyer who married Glass the same month she received her law degree in 1984 from the University of San Diego School of Law. “I have every confidence in the book that she’ll do a great job on this case.”

Glass, in her fifth year of a six-year term, has handled several celebrity cases, but nothing as headline-grabbing as the hotel-room confrontation in which Simpson and two other men are accused of kidnapping and robbing two sports memorabilia dealers.

Through her administrative clerk, Glass declined to comment.

Glass, 51, practiced law for almost 20 years, focusing on civil law for more than a decade as a partner with her husband.

In 2002, she raised and spent more than $400,000 to win a seat on the bench paying about $130,000 a year. She defeated a judge who spent more than $280,000 but lost his bid for a third term after Glass accused him of being soft on crime.

By the end of her first year on the bench, Glass helped establish a county mental health court, and she pushed for creation of a competency court in 2005 to review the mental ability of defendants to stand trial.

Glass sent former NFL kicker Cole Ford to a state mental hospital in 2005 after finding him incompetent to stand trial for shooting at the Las Vegas home of entertainers Siegfried & Roy. Ford later agreed to a plea deal that required him to continue mental health treatment.

Glass also oversaw the jury trial of a California minister and his wife who were convicted of trying to extort millions of dollars from the husband of singer Celine Dion. Ae Ho Kwon’s wife, Yun Kyeong Kwon Sung, claimed the singer’s husband, Rene Angelil, raped her.

Before trial, Glass made a crucial ruling that Angelil was not properly served with a subpoena, and Angelil didn’t have to testify. The Nevada Supreme Court is considering an appeal from Kwon and Sung, whose lawyers argue they should have been able to confront their accuser.

More recently, Glass was assigned the case of husband-and-wife professional bodybuilders Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan, accused of slaying their live-in assistant, Melissa James. The trial is set to begin in June.

Glass has dropped in ratings by county bar association members, from 80 percent favoring retention in 2004 to 71 percent in 2006. Ratings are compiled every two years by the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper.

One critic surveyed in 2004 said Glass worked hard and meant well but needed training in “rules of evidence, law and procedure.”

A veteran defense lawyer said Glass today is tough, fair, knowledgeable about the law, and “sensitive to both sides of the aisle.”

“She can take the bull by the horns and make tough decisions,” John Momot said. “She does not cave in.”