Democrat official arrested for allegedly murdering investigative journalist, evidence found at home
Las Vegas police have arrested a Democrat politician for allegedly murdering an investigative reporter who was found stabbed to death.
At a news conference Thursday, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officials announced that Robert Telles, who serves as the Clark County Public Administrator, was arrested Wednesday for the murder of Las Vegas Review Journal investigative reporter Jeff German.
Telles’ arrest came hours after Las Vegas police executed a search warrant at his home.
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Clark County, which employs Telles, is the largest county in Nevada and home to the state’s most populous city of Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement that Telles has been charged with “open murder with a deadly weapon” and is being held at the Clark County Detention Center.
Telles recently lost renomination in the Democratic primary for a second term in his position after German published a report alleging an environment of “turmoil and internal dissention” at the office, including “emotional stress, bullying and favoritism.” On May 16, German reported that Telles had an “inappropriate relationship” with a staffer that led to him giving her special treatment.
A subsequent article written by German the following week detailed how an outside consultant was “hired to resolve turmoil in county office.” Additional articles about Telles contained headlines reading, “Embattled county official losing a re-election bid, posts angry letter” and “Embattled county official concedes race, remains combative.”
As German explained in his May 16 article, employees of the Public Administrator’s office videotaped Telles and his mistress in the back seat of her car in a parking garage to provide evidence of the relationship.
German also reported on a complaint filed with the Clark County Office of Diversity, stating that “the county has failed to protect employees from a mentally and emotionally abusive situation that has continued now for two years-plus, and the mental and physical health ramifications have been felt by most of the full-time employees in this department of only eight full-time employees.”
Complaints by employees suggest that Telles also favored employees hired he started serving as Public Administrator over those who began working at the office before his tenure began.
A woman quoted in the article told German that “he [Telles] literally works to create division in the office,” adding, “He’s so vindictive and horrible.” According to Janelle Lea, a part-time investigator at the Public Administrator’s office, “Everybody looks like they’re in a CYA situation all the time. People are depressed, they’re physically ill. One staffer told me, ‘I’d rather have a colonoscopy every day than come here and deal with him.’”
Janie Osuzik, who worked at the office for over 30 years before retiring due to mental anguish, said: “You always had to be on guard, and it made the office uncomfortable because you knew there were certain people who would run to (Telles) on everything, even with lies, and would accept it as true.”
She added, “He would storm into my office and accuse me of things and never take the time to investigate anything.”
Less than a month after that article was published, Telles narrowly lost renomination to Rita Reid, a staffer in the Public Administrator’s office, in a June 14 primary. Reid attributed headaches, stomachaches and depression she experienced to the treatment she received from Telles.
For his part, Telles has vehemently denied all allegations of wrongdoing and defended his record in multiple statements on his campaign website. In one statement, released on June 19, Telles accused German and his predecessor as Public Administrator of “trying to drag me through the mud” and expressed concern that the articles might “keep coming.”
Telles also lashed out at German on Twitter, suggesting that German was “going through the trash for his 4th story on me” and characterizing him as a “typical bully” who “can’t take a pound of criticism after slinging 100 pounds of BS.”
*Wife hears rustling in the trash* Her: "Honey, is there a wild animal in the trash?" Me: "No, dear. Looks like it's @JGermanRJ going through our trash for his 4th story on me." Oh, Jeff... ???? @LVRJ#LasVegas
— Rob Telles (@RobTellesLV) June 18, 2022
As LVMPD Homicide Section Captain Dori Koren explained at the news conference, German was found unresponsive outside his home Saturday morning. When officers arrived at the scene, they determined that he had died as a result of multiple stab wounds. Koren told the press that the murder took place the day prior at around 11:18 a.m. local time.
Police identified Telles as the suspect after discovering that a vehicle “suspiciously driving around in the neighborhood on the morning of the murder, prior to the murder and then certainly was there at the time when the murder happened” belonged to his wife and was later found at his home. According to Koren, “That vehicle had stopped multiple times throughout the neighborhood and was behaving suspiciously.”
“We determined that the suspect wearing the orange shirt had fled in that vehicle, which connected the vehicle to the suspect,” he added. The police discovered clothing matching the clothing worn by the suspect at Telles’ property and DNA collected from Telles matched DNA found at the crime scene.
Telles’ campaign website portrays him as a “family man with a beautiful, intelligent wife and three usually wonderful children.” In his role as Public Administrator, Telles “secures property of people who pass away in Clark County while a search for family or the decedent’s executor is performed” and “administers estates in court when families cannot.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
