By KEN RITTER
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas-area elected public official was arrested Wednesday because the suspect within the deadly stabbing of a veteran newspaper reporter whose investigations of the official’s work preceded his main loss in June.
Clark County Public Administrator Robert “Rob” Telles, a Democrat, was taken into custody at his house by police SWAT officers hours after investigators served a search warrant and confiscated automobiles within the felony probe of the killing of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German, Sheriff Joe Lombardo informed the newspaper.
Telles, 45, had been a spotlight of German’s reporting about turmoil together with complaints of administrative bullying, favoritism and Telles’ relationship with a subordinate staffer within the county workplace that handles property of people that die with no will or household contacts.
The newspaper’s govt editor, Glenn Cook, mentioned in an announcement that “the arrest of Robert Telles is at once an enormous relief and an outrage for the Review-Journal newsroom.”
“We are relieved Robert Telles is in custody and outraged that a colleague appears to have been killed for reporting on an elected official,” Cook mentioned.
Telles didn’t instantly reply Wednesday to phone messages at his county workplace, and it was not instantly clear following his arrest if he had an legal professional who might converse on his behalf. The county administrator workplace was closed.
German joined the Review-Journal in 2010 after greater than 20 years on the Las Vegas Sun, the place he was a columnist and reporter who coated courts, politics, labor, authorities and arranged crime.
Telles, a lawyer who practiced probate and property regulation, gained his elected place in 2018, changing a three-term public administrator. He misplaced his June social gathering main to Assistant Public Administrator Rita Reid. Telles’ time period expires Dec. 31.
In the weeks earlier than the election, German bylined studies about an workplace “mired in turmoil and internal dissension” between longtime staff and new hires underneath Telles’ management.
Telles blamed “old-timers” for exaggerating the extent of his relationship with a feminine staffer and falsely claiming that he mistreated them.
“All my new employees are super-happy and everyone’s productive and doing well,” he informed the newspaper. “We’ve almost doubled the productivity in the office.”
Telles later posted Twitter complaints about German, the Review-Journal reported, together with claims in June that German was a bully who was “obsessed” with him.
German, a reporter with a status for tenacity, was engaged on follow-up studies, the newspaper mentioned Wednesday, and not too long ago filed public data requests for emails and textual content messages between Telles and three different county officers together with Reid and guide Michael Murphy.
Murphy, the previous Clark County coroner employed to handle complaints about management within the public directors’ workplace, didn’t instantly reply to a phone message.
German’s physique was discovered Saturday morning exterior his house. Police mentioned he apparently was killed Friday and characterised the assault as an remoted incident. The Clark County coroner dominated that German died of “multiple sharp force injuries” and dominated the case a murder.
After police requested Monday for public assist to determine a suspect, developments got here shortly.
Police on Tuesday confirmed a quick video of a attainable suspect strolling on a sidewalk clad in brilliant orange “construction attire” and distributed a photograph of a particular crimson or maroon GMC Yukon Denali SUV with chrome handles, a sunroof and a baggage rack, saying it might have been linked to the case.
Telles was seen in newspaper pictures washing an identical automobile parked in his driveway on Tuesday, and KTNV-TV reported the automobile was towed away after police arrived on Wednesday.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”