LAS VEGAS (Scripps News Las Vegas) — Former Clark County public administrator Robert Telles has now filed a complaint with the Clark County Citizen Review Board to discuss Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department policies and procedures.
That’s according to an agenda for the board’s meeting on May 23.
Robert Telles appeared in court on Wednesday morning to address several motions filed by both legal parties in the previous week. (KTNV)
The item states Telles alleges officer misconduct on Jan. 27, 2023 where Telles claims the officer violated policies “regarding Interaction with Public” and regarding “Conformity to Rules and Regulations.”
According to the board’s website, five board members will review the complaints, vote, and decide how the matter should proceed. That panel may dismiss a case for lack of merit, determine the case does not warrant any further action or investigation, refer the case for voluntary mediation, or may refer a complaint for further investigation.
This comes after he also accused police of misconduct during a court hearing last week.
Telles is accused of murdering local journalist Jeff German, who was found stabbed to death outside of his home in September. Telles has repeatedly denied those allegations and claims he was framed by police.
In court, Telles claimed that when he started working as the Clark County public administrator, he found evidence of police misconduct.
“There was this ring that was defrauding the court and families of deceased Clark County residents. This ring opened many of these probates, hundreds, asserting that almost every home had substantial damage. The homes were sold at low prices to associates who would turn around and sell the homes for as much as double as what they were purchased,” Telles said. “Also, the ring failed to report any personal property such as jewelry, cash, firearms, collectibles, or vehicles.”
Telles claimed he reported the matter to the District Attorney’s Office who directed him to LVMPD detectives. He claims that instead of investigating that matter, detectives started looking into him for bribery and carrying out “warrantless surveillance.”
However, prosecutors said those claims aren’t true and that warrants were issued.
“It’s a joke. If he has an issue with a warrant, file a motion to suppress it and provide your legal basis,” prosecutors said. “But there’s nothing improper in this case in terms of reviewing a potential search warrant.”
Telles then asked the court for access to more documentation, which prosecutors said he was “not entitled to.”
“The defendant doesn’t practice criminal law. But then he spins out things like conspiracies and working and subterfuge and all of these kind of fancy words to make it sound as if there’s some sort of obstruction in play,” prosecutors said. “We’re not trying to obstruct anything. We are bound by discovery statues. We turn over what we can and we made that clear to the Court.”
A judge was also supposed to rule on a proposal to search German’s devices. However, in last week’s court hearing, prosecutors filed a new brief.
“The basic argument in the same. We didn’t take anything from the RJ. We took things from the victim of a homicide,” prosecutors said. “Let’s imagine that Mr. German was only brutally battered instead of murdered and let’s say Metro was trying to figure out who battered him and he consented to giving us his devices to search so that we could help him figure out who battered him. Would the RJ be able to step in and tell Mr. German no. You can’t give Metro your property to help Metro help you find out who did this? That never would be able to happen but that’s essentially what’s happening here.”
Prosecutors add the only additional thing in the new brief was to point out “flaws in [the court’s] protocol.”
“Under Metro’s plan, you get it all. You can review it all and if we think there are things that are in there, we can pass them along,” prosecutors said. “You just can’t talk about certain things to the public that may infringe on their First Amendment right dealing with media stuff that has no ties to our case. That’s all I wanted to lay out.”
As of Tuesday night, a new civil hearing date hasn’t been set. Telles’ criminal trial is set to begin in November.
This story was originally published May 17, 2023 by KTNV in Las Vegas, an E.W. Scripps Company.
