Las Vegas-area elected official arrested in deadly stabbing of 69-year-old reporter, police say

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — 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 residence by police SWAT officers hours after investigators served a search warrant and confiscated autos within the felony probe of the killing of Las Vegas Evaluate-Journal reporter Jeff German, Sheriff Joe Lombardo advised 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 and not using a will or household contacts.

The newspaper’s govt editor, Glenn Prepare dinner, mentioned in a press release that “the arrest of Robert Telles is without delay an unlimited aid and an outrage for the Evaluate-Journal newsroom.”

“We’re relieved Robert Telles is in custody and outraged {that a} colleague seems to have been killed for reporting on an elected official,” Prepare dinner mentioned.

SEE RELATED STORY: Las Vegas journalist stabbed to demise exterior his residence, police say

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 lawyer who may converse on his behalf. The county administrator workplace was closed.

German joined the Evaluate-Journal in 2010 after greater than twenty years on the Las Vegas Solar, the place he was a columnist and reporter who lined courts, politics, labor, authorities and arranged crime.

Telles, a lawyer who practiced probate and property regulation, received his elected place in 2018, changing a three-term public administrator. He misplaced his June celebration main to Assistant Public Administrator Rita Reid. Telles’ time period expires Dec. 31.

Within the weeks earlier than the election, German bylined studies about an workplace “mired in turmoil and inner dissension” between longtime workers 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 workers are super-happy and everybody’s productive and doing properly,” he advised the newspaper. “We have virtually doubled the productiveness within the workplace.”

Telles later posted Twitter complaints about German, the Evaluate-Journal reported, together with claims in June that German was a bully who was “obsessed” with him.

German, a reporter with a repute for tenacity, was engaged on follow-up studies, the newspaper mentioned Wednesday, and just lately filed public information requests for emails and textual content messages between Telles and three different county officers together with Reid and marketing consultant Michael Murphy.

Murphy, the previous Clark County coroner employed to deal with 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 residence. Police mentioned he apparently was killed Friday and characterised the assault as an remoted incident. The Clark County coroner dominated that German died of “a number of sharp pressure accidents” and dominated the case a murder.

After police requested Monday for public assist to determine a suspect, developments got here rapidly.

Police on Tuesday confirmed a short video of a potential suspect strolling on a sidewalk clad in shiny orange “building apparel” and distributed a photograph of a particular purple 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 photographs washing an identical car parked in his driveway on Tuesday, and KTNV-TV reported the car was towed away after police arrived on Wednesday.