Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, proper, talks to Las Vegas Overview-Journal reporter Jeff German in his Las Vegas workplace on this Could 2022 picture.
Ok.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Overview-Journal/by way of AP
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Ok.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Overview-Journal/by way of AP
LAS VEGAS — Jury choice will start Monday within the trial of a former Las Vegas-area politician accused of killing an investigative journalist who wrote articles essential of the elected official’s managerial conduct, a choose determined Wednesday.
Nonetheless, the choose on Monday additionally will contemplate a renewed request by former Democratic county administrator of estates Robert Telles to dismiss the case fully, with out a trial.
Telles, 47, has remained jailed since his arrest in September 2022, days after Las Vegas Overview-Journal reporter Jeff German was discovered slashed and stabbed to dying at his residence. Telles has pleaded not responsible to open homicide, a cost that would put him in jail for the remainder of his life if he’s convicted. Prosecutors aren’t in search of the dying penalty.
Telles has stated repeatedly that he needed trial to begin as quickly as attainable. However he additionally spent months hiring and firing a number of protection attorneys, served as his personal lawyer, and tried twice with out success to have Clark County District Courtroom Decide Michelle Leavitt faraway from the case. He alleged that the choose was biased towards him.
He has stated he desires to inform a jury that he was framed by police, the investigation was tainted by bias and his civil rights have been violated. However Telles didn’t present proof throughout a February 2023 jailhouse interview with The Related Press, and wouldn’t say what he was doing the day German was attacked and killed.
“He desires to proceed to trial, desires to have his day in courtroom,” Telles’ present protection lawyer, Robert Draskovich, advised reporters exterior courtroom on Wednesday. “He is been pretty adamant for the reason that get-go that he desires to inform his story.”
Draskovich stated he anticipated jury choice would take a number of days due to the extreme media consideration surrounding the case.
Prosecutors Pamela Weckerly and Christopher Hamner have declined to speak in regards to the case exterior courtroom. Clark County District Lawyer Steve Wolfson has referred to as German’s dying “brutal and meaningless” and stated the case towards Telles is essential for the group.
German, 69, was the one journalist killed within the U.S. amongst a minimum of 67 information media staff slain worldwide in 2022, in accordance with a the New York-based Committee to Defend Journalists.
He was extensively revered in 44 years of reporting on organized crime, authorities corruption, political scandals and mass shootings — first on the Las Vegas Solar after which on the Overview-Journal. He was discovered useless by a neighbor exterior his residence months after he wrote articles in 2022 that have been essential of Telles and his managerial conduct whereas he was in elected workplace.
Prosecutors say tales that German wrote about Telles are a motive for the killing. They’ve stated they’ve robust proof together with DNA believed to be from Telles discovered beneath German’s fingernails and movies exhibiting a person believed to be Telles strolling close to German’s residence in regards to the time of the killing.
Progress towards trial additionally was delayed by a authorized battle the Overview-Journal took to the state Supreme Courtroom to guard public disclosure of German’s confidential sources whereas police searched the slain reporter’s pc and phone information for proof within the case.
The newspaper argued that names and unpublished materials on German’s units have been shielded from disclosure by the First Modification and Nevada state regulation. Las Vegas police argued their investigation would not be full till the units have been looked for attainable proof. The courtroom gave the newspaper, its attorneys and consultants time to evaluate the information first.
Lawyer Ashley Kissinger, representing the Overview-Journal, advised Leavitt on Wednesday that the evaluate course of might be accomplished in time to show over information to police and prosecutors on Monday.
In latest weeks, Telles and Draskovich even have requested Leavitt to dam testimony at trial a couple of federal hostile office and discrimination lawsuit that 4 girls who work within the workplace he headed filed in Could towards Telles and Clark County.
“The courtroom ought to preclude admission of all gadgets purporting to indicate proof of (Telles’) character or alleged dangerous acts,” Telles stated in a July 25 courtroom pleading.