I called Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie\u2019s office Nov. 1, looking for the official report on the Sept. 15 traffic accident involving Metro jail guard Victor Hunter, who died of a massive heart attack a block and a half from the jail (per the county coroner\u2019s office), after reportedly being given a shot and told to drive home after he\u2019d displayed every classic symptom of a heart attack on the job.<\/p>\n
(His sergeant told the widow that Victor\u2019s on-duty attack would show up on surveillance video at the jail, possibly the most videotaped building in the county. The head of the local police union also told me the video would be all-important. Let\u2019s see how good you are — does Metro now claim there\u2019s no more usable video of that event then there was of the Costco shooting of Army veteran Erik Scott on July 9?)<\/p>\n
The report I was seeking says the infirmary nurse, retained by the contractor Naphcare to tend to the jail\u2019s inmates, gave Corrections Officer Hunter a shot of Phenergan and sent him home, according to several people who have seen said report.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office transferred me to \u201cPublic Information Officer\u201d Bill Cassell, who told me to get the report I\u2019d have to hie myself down to the records office at the department\u2019s new \u201cPolice Plaza\u201d headquarters on Martin Luther King Boulevard.<\/p>\n
There, they\u2019d pull the report, \u201credact it,\u201d and send it to him, at which point he\u2019d send it to me, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat will they redact?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonal information,\u201d Mr. Cassell said.<\/p>\n
I went down to the new records office. On the front door is a picture of a handgun with a slash through it, beneath which it says, in large block letters, \u201cNO WEAPONS.\u201d I went in and was issued a number by the large woman behind the glass. I then sat and waited in the waiting room for about half an hour for my number to be called. Fortunately, I\u2019d brought a book.<\/p>\n
The numbers on the little slips of paper aren\u2019t in a single sequence. That is to say, if your number is R-239, and the last number called was R-237, you might think you\u2019re behind only whoever holds slip R-238. Not so. Before R-238 gets called, they may call G-722 and N-101.<\/p>\n
While I and about a dozen other people waited, a young police officer came in. He was wearing a T-shirt but carried his badge on a cord around his neck. He was also carrying a black Glock handgun holstered on his right hip, and a yellow hand weapon on his left hip — probably a Taser.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Two-Gun Tommy didn\u2019t see the \u201cNO WEAPONS\u201d sign, which is at eye level on the door he came through. Perhaps the large woman handing him his numbered slip didn\u2019t notice he was armed, reminding him to go back out and leave his pieces in his vehicle. Or perhaps the sign really means \u201cOfficers of the state shall go armed at all times, but peasants dare not bear arms in our exalted presence, no matter what the Second Amendment says, and what are you going to do about it?\u201d<\/p>\n
The cop didn\u2019t even have time to sit down before they called his number. While the rest of us peasants continued to wait.<\/p>\n
Finally I was called to a window, where I asked for accident report LVMPD-110915-4568, a public document.<\/p>\n
The young clerk asked if I was a member of the family. Nope. She asked if I was from an attorney\u2019s office. Nope. She seemed confused, asking why then I would want such a document.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a public document and I want a copy,\u201d I said, judging no more reason was necessary under the state open records law.<\/p>\n
This puzzled young lady had apparently never encountered such a situation before. \u201cWhat specific information are you looking for in the report?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe part where it discusses his medical treatment at the jail before they put him in his car and sent him home that night,\u201d I said. That section is about 35 pages long \u201cAnd we may want to compare it with the version in the possession of the widow, so I\u2019d appreciate getting the whole report.\u201d<\/p>\n
The clerk said she could see the portion of the report I was talking about, on her screen, but that she couldn\u2019t release it to me, since that wasn\u2019t \u201cthe public part of the document.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole incident report is a public record,\u201d I replied. \u201cThey all are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The clerk asked for my name and went to see her supervisor. She came back and said she couldn\u2019t release the 35-page \u201csupplemental report\u201d of this public document to me, because she didn\u2019t have special permission from Bill Cassell. And because they\u2019d kept me waiting for half an hour it was now past 5 p.m., and they couldn\u2019t reach Bill Cassell. All they could sell me for $9 was a four-page \u201cinitial report\u201d giving makes and models of the vehicles, and the names of the two drivers, with three added blank pages attached.<\/p>\n
I bought the report. At the bottom it says \u201cOn scene report. … See Accident Investigation Supplement.\u201d<\/p>\n
But I can\u2019t see the supplement, of course; they wouldn\u2019t let me.<\/p>\n
At the bottom the form is stamped in red \u201cSecondary Dissemination of any kind is Prohibited and could subject the offender to Criminal and Civil Liability.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not true. For example, the small section of the report I was allowed to buy says Mr. Hunter was driving a 1995 Honda Accord, which is now being held hostage by Ewing Brothers Towing. There. I just committed \u201csecondary dissemination.\u201d Please tell me what statute I\u2019ve just violated, and when I should expect to be arrested.<\/p>\n
The next day, the editor of the newspaper sent a formal letter to the sheriff, requesting that document under the Nevada Open Records law. On Thursday a spokesman in Metro\u2019s \u201clegal\u201d department (which makes you wonder what all the other departments are) said it would be \u201cseveral days\u201d before they could get a lawyer to review this public document, prepared by \u201cpublic servants\u201d doing the public\u2019s business with taxpayer funds, and decide whether they\u2019re going to release it.<\/p>\n
How many people, in recent years, have paid Metro $9 for an accident report, believing what they got was the entire public document, without even knowing to ask for the \u201cSupplement Report\u201d?<\/p>\n
What is Metro covering up? Since they\u2019re self-insured for workers\u2019 comp, why don\u2019t they just OK the widow Noreta Hunter\u2019s worker\u2019s compensation claim for her husband\u2019s death? Why don\u2019t they acknowledge Victor\u2019s death was job related, allowing the family to seek federal benefits under the Bureau of Justice Assistance Public Safety Officers\u2019 Benefits Program?<\/p>\n
Why didn\u2019t Victor Hunter get an honors funeral, which only costs the department about $5,000, and which is commonly granted even to officers who die in self-inflicted accidents? If it\u2019s the cost, they could file a \u201csubrogation\u201d claim to recover those costs from Naphcare. Couldn\u2019t they?<\/p>\n
What\u2019s going on, here? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I called Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie\u2019s office Nov. 1, looking for the official report on the Sept. 15 traffic accident involving Metro jail guard Victor Hunter, who died of a massive heart attack a block and a half from the jail (per the county coroner\u2019s office), after reportedly being given a shot and told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,29,58,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-town","category-heroes","category-killer-cops","category-nevada"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-eA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2085,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions\/2085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}