The police in Las Vegas searched the home of a county official on Wednesday in connection with the stabbing death of a veteran reporter for The Las Vegas Review-Journal who had written several investigative stories about the official, according to the local news media and a neighbor.
According to The Review-Journal, reporters saw uniformed officers and police vehicles outside the home of the Clark County public administrator, Robert Telles, a Democrat who lost his bid for re-election in a June primary after he was the focus of reporting by Jeff German, a longtime reporter for the newspaper.
“They’ve been here all day, since about 7 a.m.,” David Zanella, a neighbor who lives two doors from Mr. Telles, said in a phone interview. “They towed both of the cars from the house and they’ve been in the house, taking things.”
The Review-Journal reported that Mr. Telles arrived at the house at about 2:20 p.m. local time, wearing what appeared to be a white hazmat suit. He did not respond to reporters’ questions as he entered his garage and closed the door, the newspaper reported.
The police have not identified any suspects or made any arrests in the case, and they would not confirm on Wednesday that they were searching Mr. Telles’s home.
In a statement, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department would confirm only that it was serving search warrants related to the investigation into Mr. German’s death. “No further information will be provided at this time,” the statement said.
Mr. Telles did not immediately respond on Wednesday to phone messages, texts and emails, and it was unclear if he had a lawyer. A sign posted on the door of the Clark County public administrator’s office on Wednesday said that the building was temporarily closed, according to 8 News Now, a local television station.
Mr. German, 69, was found fatally stabbed outside his home in Las Vegas on Saturday morning. The police believe he was killed after an altercation on Friday.
On Tuesday, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released a video that it said showed the person who killed Mr. German wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a reflective orange jacket. The video also showed the person’s vehicle, which appears to be a red or maroon GMC Yukon Denali, the police said.
The Review-Journal reported that a vehicle matching the description of the Yukon Denali had been towed from Mr. Telles’s property on Wednesday.
The police have not said whether they believe that Mr. German was targeted because of his reporting. At a news conference on Tuesday, Capt. Dori Koren of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said that investigators were evaluating every single lead and every theory.
“We are exploring all possibilities in this investigation,” Captain Koren said. “But at this time, we believe we have evidence that shows that the suspect was in the area prior to the homicide and it appears that they were casing to commit other crimes.”
He asked the public for home security video or other information that could help identify the person responsible for killing Mr. German, whose career as a columnist and a senior investigative reporter spanned more than three decades.
Over that period, Mr. German broke stories on organized crime, politics, casinos and corruption for The Las Vegas Sun and then for The Review-Journal.
This year, Mr. German wrote several investigative stories about Mr. Telles’s office, which secures the property of deceased people and administers estates in court. Mr. Telles, a lawyer, took office in 2019 and his term expires in January.
In May, Mr. German reported that the office had been “mired in turmoil and internal dissension over the past two years, with allegations of emotional stress, bullying and favoritism leading to secret videotaping of the boss and a co-worker outside the office.”
The story, based on interviews with a half-dozen current and former employees, described a “hostile work environment” and accusations that Mr. Telles had been engaged in an “inappropriate relationship” with a staff member — accusations that both he and the employee denied.
In the story, Mr. Telles blamed “a handful of old-timers” for exaggerating the relationship and for falsely claiming that he had been mistreating them. “All my new employees are super happy and everyone’s productive and doing well,” Mr. Telles was quoted as saying.
In another story in late May, Mr. German reported that Clark County managers had hired a former coroner to try to ease tensions in the office.
After the June primary, Mr. Telles posted a letter online criticizing The Review-Journal and rebutting claims made in Mr. German’s reporting. Mr. Telles also wrote about Mr. German on Twitter.
“Typical bully,” Mr. Telles wrote. “Can’t take a pound of critism after slinging 100 pounds of BS. Up to article #4 now. You’d think he’d have better things to do.” He included an emoji of a winking face with a tongue sticking out.
After Mr. German was killed, Glenn Cook, The Review-Journal’s executive editor, told the paper that Mr. German had not communicated any concerns for his safety or any threats made against him.
“There are no words for a loss like this,” Mr. Cook wrote on Twitter on Sept. 4.
Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.
