Las Vegas Review Journal investigative reporter Jeff German was fearless. For decades, he covered Vegas organized crime stories, and also tackled city/county corruption, without concern of what might happen to him if he exposed dangerous/vindictive people.
German was very well respected in Vegas, and had moved over in 2010 to the Review Journal after over 20 years at the rival Las Vegas Sun. German had been covering the happenings in Las Vegas since the late 1980s.
That's why everyone was shocked when German was murdered in front of his home on Saturday, at the age of 69. He was stabbed to death, and immediately questions arose whether this was revenge regarding a story, personal, or just a random murder.
The first piece of info released was a weird photo of the apparent perpetrator. The man clearly was taking steps to cover his head and not be recognized, which made it more likely this was a targeted murder, rather than some kind of random street crime.
Initially police claimed the murder took place after the perpetrator was "casing the area to commit other crime", thus implying that it WAS just a wrong place/wrong time situation for German. However, now it's looking less likely.
Today Las Vegas Metro Police served a search warrant on Robert Telles, an attorney who runs the Clark County Public Administrator's office, but who lost the primary in a 2022 reelection bid. It is believed that Telles blames German for his loss, after accusing German of "fabricating a scandal" regarding an alleged inappropriate relationship Telles had with a female underling, as well as an alleged toxic environment in that office.
Here's some articles about it:
NPR Article: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/07/11216...on-jeff-german
Timeline from 8NewsNow: https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-...r-jeff-german/
Most notably, a vehicle matching the description of the suspect vehicle in the homicide was found and towed from the driveway of Telles' home:
https://twitter.com/#!/x/status/1567603033273671680
Telles was accused by co-workers of having an inappropriate relationship with an underling named Roberta Lee-Kennett. This relationship was then alleged to have allowed Lee-Kennett to abuse others in the office without consequence. A secret video was taken of Telles and Lee-Kennett going to a separate building and sitting in the back of Telles' car, possibly making out, on two different occasions. Telles is married. Both he and Roberta Lee-Kennett are 45 years old. German released his article with a video of the back seat trysts in May, and Telles subsequently lost the primary in June.
The Public Administrator's office is in charge of tracking down and distributing assets of deceased people who do not have a will. These offices often lack oversight and sometimes are corrupt or dysfunctional. About 9 years ago, I dealt with the Los Angeles County version of this office, and ran into incredible corruption. I was helping out a family friend who wasn't equipped to deal with the whole thing, and was shocked what I found. It doesn't surprise me that the Clark County office also has issues.
Developing...