Jury selection to begin for ex-politician accused of killing Las Vegas investigative reporter
LAS VEGAS — The trial of a Las Vegas-area politician accused of killing an investigative journalist who wrote critical articles about him will take center stage in Nevada on Monday, as a jury is selected in a case that has stunned Sin City and the journalism world.
“It turned everything upside down,” said Tom Pitaro, a veteran Las Vegas attorney, of the death of reporter Jeff German, who spent 44 years gathering confidential sources inside the city, the government and the courthouses.
About a decade ago, Pitaro also taught Robert Telles, the officer accused of killing German, while he was in law school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“When you have an office holder, a respected journalist, and the kind of murder it was, I think people are shocked at how this could have happened,” Pitaro said.
The Labor Day weekend 2022 killing drew widespread attention. German, 69, became the only journalist killed in the U.S. among at least 67 news media workers killed worldwide that year, according to the New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists.
German, a Milwaukee native, was widely respected for his reporting on courts, organized crime, government corruption, political scandals and mass shootings, first at the Las Vegas Sun and later at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Prosecutors say articles he wrote in early 2022 about Telles and a district office in turmoil were a motive for the murder.
German was found dead in a side yard outside his home, where Telles is accused in a criminal complaint of “waiting” for German to come outside.
Telles, 47, was arrested days later after police released video of a man wearing an orange work shirt and a wide-brimmed straw hat, carrying a shoulder bag, walking toward German’s home. Police also released images of a distinctive maroon SUV, which a Review-Journal photographer saw Telles washing outside his home a few days after the killing.
Telles grew up in El Paso, Texas, and lived in Colorado before moving to Las Vegas. He became an attorney in 2015 and ran as a Democrat in 2018 to become Clark County’s estate administrator. He lost his elected position after his arrest, and his law license was revoked.
He has pleaded not guilty to open murder and could face life in prison if found guilty. He remained in custody as he prepared to face a jury.
“He’s been looking forward to the trial,” Telles’ attorney, Robert Draskovich, said ahead of Monday’s trial. “He wants to tell his story.”
More than 100 potential jurors filled out questionnaires about what they had heard about German’s murder and Telles’ arrest. Interviewing and selecting 12 jurors and several alternates could take several days. Testimony is expected to last less than two weeks. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.
But first, Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt will hear a final motion Monday to dismiss the case against Telles and halt the trial.
Telles alleges in a court document that he was wrongfully detained by police before his arrest; footage of the traffic stop during which he was pulled over, captured by an officer’s body camera, was improperly deleted; and blood tests taken at the hospital after his arrest and treatment for what he calls self-inflicted cuts to his wrists were not entered into evidence in his case.
Leavitt has denied other requests to dismiss the case, while Telles has hired and fired lawyers and served as his own defense attorney. Telles twice tried to have Leavitt removed from his case, arguing that she was biased against him.
German’s relatives have not spoken publicly about the killing. Family spokesman and friend George McCabe said Friday they would not comment on the trial.
Prosecutors say they have strong evidence evidence including DNA believed to have belonged to Telles, found under German’s fingernails and cut-up pieces of a straw hat and shoes found in Telles’ home that resembled the shoes worn by the person seen in the video outside German’s home.
Telles wanted his trial to proceed quickly. But progress was partly delayed by a legal battle The Review-Journal went to the Supreme Court to protect the disclosure of confidential sources on German’s cell phones and computers.
The newspaper argued that names and unpublished material were protected from disclosure by the First Amendment and Nevada state law. Police argued that their investigation would not be complete until the devices were searched for possible evidence. The court gave the newspaper, its attorneys and advisers time to review the files.
An attorney for the Review-Journal told the judge last week that the review process will be completed in time for the files to be turned over to police, prosecutors and Telles’ attorneys before the jury is selected.
Telles also wants Leavitt to enter a ruling barring testimony at trial about a hostile work environment and a discrimination lawsuit that four women who worked at the office he managed have filed in federal court against Telles and Clark County.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has collected reports from 17 journalists and media workers Since 1992, 15 people have died in the US, including 15 that turned out to be work-related.
“Killings of journalists in the U.S. are thankfully extraordinarily rare,” said Katherine Jacobsen, a program coordinator at the organization. “An attempt on your life in your own backyard is so far outside the norm that it’s very difficult to prepare for situations like this.”
Gabe Rottman of the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C., agreed that killings are unusual, but said journalists in the U.S. can face threats from protesters or law enforcement while covering civil unrest or violence.
“The ability of journalists to do their work freely and safely is essential for the public to hold government officials accountable,” Rottman said. “The most serious way to turn a blind eye to what is happening is to threaten the life of a journalist for doing their job. That should not happen.”