- Quickdraw McLaw
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- Never forget. Yesterday marked 21 years since 9/11. [NPR]
- Probation for woman who hit teens with SUV. [RJ]
- Records show Nye County officials failed to act in dog cruelty case. [KTNV]
- Nevada Athletic Commission to investigate UFC press conference fracas. [Fox5Vegas]
Never forget. I think people, especially the younger, have little realization of the importance of the event. I vividly remember seeing people jumping from windows to avoid burning to death. 2,996 people died in the attack, compare that to Pearl Harbor where there were 2403 deaths.
Yes. I remember that day. I heard a passing reference on the radio and asked a friend – hey what happened in New York. He said it's gone. I said what is. he said the Trade Center. I said gone? I could not fathom it was just gone. I know my words won't translate in a post but – just gone – with people and families and just horror. I hate even remembering that day.
The recordings of voicemails to loved ones and 911 calls are incredibly sad and haunting. Especially Aon employee Kevin Cosgrove's 911 recording which ended with his realization the building was collapsing around and on him and his trapped office mates. It's a nightmarish listen, but listen we should. To honor the dead and to never forget. You can find it on YouTube.
Off topic today, but just read an article about the world of Nevada work comp. If true, what a mess. https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/utter-and-complete-shambles-injured-workers-wait-months-to-receive-care-2637809/
Rob Telles could do a better job.
Yes. He could. But the workplace would likely be . . . . . "hostile".
Re: the article – That is super creepy – I the idea of attorneys hiring someone to tail me is wild. They could have just done a records request for her telework schedule. Everyone in that article was anonymous, I get that that they fear repercussions, but hiring a private investigator should at least mean they would divulge who was following the senior appeals officer.
I thought the same thing as 11:02… seems over the top to hire a PI to trail a supervisory workers comp appeals officer. I mean, who is going to pay for that? Sounds like a disgruntled employee turned workplace stalker.
Who will defend Rob Telles? Apparently, not Ozzie Fumo, who was recruited by the police to help negotiate Telles surrender, but who indicated he would not be involved as defense attorney.
Now, the attorney who was with Telles at his initial court appearance was Travis Shetler.
I wonder if Shetler may possibly continue on the case. Does he have significant and meaningful experience with defending murder cases? I ask because I am really not aware of his experience or reputation.
Nearly all good crim defense counsel in town are conflicted out of Telles's case because German knew all of them well. Telles will have to get someone from up North, from out of state, or from the PD's office.
1:31-I've heard that rationale offered by the media, but I doubt it is that simple. Not all criminal defense attorneys are constantly delighted with the coverage of a hard-hitting journalist. In fact, in general, deep investigative reports on criminal cases tend to create more vulnerability for defense counsel than the prosecution, as such reports often unearth further evidence of guilt. But also true that sometimes such reports demonstrate prosecutorial or police over-reach and wrong-doing.
But, on balance, more of these investigative pieces are harmful to high-profile defendants than they are harmful to prosecutors. So, although it is fair to suggest that most criminal defense attorneys greatly respected German's abilities, to suggest that his investigative pieces were universally beloved by all defense counsel to the point that it would be total "hands off" as to getting involved in a high profile case where he was the murder victim, that may be an over-simplification which is hardly universally true.
But in paying understandable homage to a great journalist, and a great person, brutally murdered for doing his job ad doing it very well, I can understand why the media is suggesting that all defense counsel revered him to the point that no attorney will accept the case. But someone will, and accept it for pay, if Telles hires private counsel.
My understanding is Telles was living paycheck to paycheck before this. He almost certainly lacks the funds to pay for private counsel unless he can convince his soon to be ex-wife to sell the house to fund his doomed defense.
2:07, in which case it will be the Public Defender or Court Appointed if there is some reason to go in that direction.
When Mr. Shetler appeared for him at that initial hearing(as 1:45 references) was that a court appointed situation(which I doubt) or was it probably just a case where they know each other, and Mr. Shetler agreed to represent Telles at that initial hearing(but not necessarily much beyond that point).?
It's possible that Telles could afford private counsel, on an ongoing basis, if it is someone like Mr. Shetland who he may know well, or someone else, and they are willing to work for a lot less than a highly experienced criminal defense attorney would ordinarily charge for a murder defense.
Obviously, all just speculation on my part, but perhaps someone out there has a more clear idea of what is occurring, or what is likely to occur, and will share it with us.
Can someone with crim law experience comment on whether Telles is likely to ever be released on bail prior to trial? I know they initially denied bail but I assume it could be requested again later.
How many attorneys does it take to plead guilty and cut a deal? Between the motive, his SUV, the hat, the shoes, the DNA, the cell phone inactivity, and the video, an attorney isn't going to be of any use to Telles.
You are correct. But 3:28 has a point. At this point Telles’s only goal must be to secure bail and then immediately flee the country. Otherwise he will never be released :(.
Shetler does not have much, if any, experience in murder cases. He is likely doing this pro bono to get some publicity. Telles is not likely to have bail set at all as the proof is evident and the presumption is great that he will be convicted of a first degree murder; therefore, he is not entitled to bail. This will not be a death penalty case and his only hope is that he will get the chance for parole someday.
4:32-But how realistic is that? He, apparently is of very limited means.
If he ever does get a possible opportunity to be released on bail ,without having any additional serious money to spread around(which could at least create some possibilities) where could he realistically flee to where he could live so under the radar that he would never be detected and
extradited?
I do not work in that area of law, but many who do have privately told me they thought the RJ articles on Telles (pre-killing) were a hack job.
Apparently Telles really did do a good job cleaning up the mess in that office and the older (pre-Telles) employees who were complaining really were just mad that Telles was making them work and raising expectations on performance.
Can anyone comment on that? Is it true? If so, I would say Telles might have a slim outside chance at a Voluntary Manslaughter defense. If he was playing ball with German originally and saying, “Hey, talk to X, Y, Z, they will confirm that a lot of the HR complaints are really about lazy employees who don’t want to work” and German did not talk to those people, or did and chose not to publish anything that corroborated Telles, then there is perhaps a “pushed too far” angle here. 3 stories with a 4th coming and none ever mention that, actually, a lot of lawyers in the community agree with Telles that he cleaned things up? Especially if the rumors are true that they were living paycheck to paycheck and the articles cost him his job? That certainly could drive a person crazy.
But, again, that would depend on whether there really was a side to the story that the RJ was deliberately not corroborating in their reporting. Curious if anyone on here can give insight into whether they felt Telles was doing a good job?
@7:32 Even if the articles were 100% factual, it still felt more like TMZ than Pulitzer worthy material. "Boss has inappropriate relationship with subordinate. Is disliked by most of his staff" could be a headline written about half the attorneys in town.
IMHO, the articles had no place in a newspaper. Employees complaining about their boss and then the same employees exposing his private life away from work. Whether it was an affair or stress counselling a close friend, I do not know but it certainly was not some expose on public corruption. It would be different if money/assets were going missing from deceased estates or there were side deals selling same for pennies on the dollar. That would be worthy of the newspaper. Obviously, does not excuse what happened but I do not know what happened. Was it a confrontation that escalated, fighting ensued (there is DNA and wounds) and someone went way too far or was it a pre-meditated murder (with absolutely no plan whatsoever to ensure no DNA left or dispose of the costume/disguise)?
I am biased because Rob is/was a friend, but I always saw the articles as problematic, although I am not a journalist. The premise of the articles was (1) Rob is a mean boss and (2) Rob is having an affair with a subordinate.
Rob did clean up the PA's office. The statistics, which to my knowledge German acknowledged were given to him, but never published, showed a dramatic uptick in efficiency in the time it took to close a case and the number of cases closed. He implemented new procedures to increase efficiency. He slashed overtime pay. Some of the old guard did not like this, understandably. Looking back, I think Rob was a little naive as to how the wheels of government turn. I think he thought he could go in and just shake things up like it was a private business.
I don't know whether Rob had an affair or not. Perhaps Article #4 would have been conclusive on this point. Yes, many attorneys have affairs, even with subordinates. IF Rob had an affair, it would have been different. Rob wasn't an attorney in private practice, he was in a position of public trust. That, coupled with the subordinate position, even if consensual is a legitimate problem. I do not feel the evidence German presented thus far establishes an affair, although it strongly suggests it. If there was an affair, it was definitely newsworthy.
Finally, very little attention has been given to the timing of the articles. The first article hit a month before the primary election. That drum beat continued in articles leading up to the election. It is reasonable to question who instigated the articles and what their motives were. Remember, Rob was defeated by his deputy in the office. She benefited from the articles.
In the end, however, all of this is irrelevant now. Rob has forfeited any right to complain about any of these articles now. We don't execute reporters because we think they didn't handle stories correctly. Full stop.
Exactly this ^^^^ Seek out your own press to present the counter story or sue if it is blatantly false.
Yeah, you lose the right to say "yeah, but…" when you murder someone. And people are also ignoring the fact that this is not the first time he has had issues arise. He had issues as a law student. Now keep in mind that he went to law school as an older student. So you don't have a "young and dumb" excuse here. You have an individual who victimizes others in law school, when facing consequences he goes ballistic and threatens legal action to make it go away. Fast forward, he is confronted with his own inappropriate actions and he goes ballistic, killing someone this time. Seems like a pattern to me. So spare me the "yeah, but the articles were a hack job…" line.
I don't know about the inner workings of the CCPA's office and whether he cleaned things up there or not, but I do know that of the handful of cases that our firm is handling for the CCPA, there are more than one that came to us from John Cahill that are still open and languishing four years after John left office because the CCPA's office hasn't brought them to a position to be ready to close the estate. I wouldn't call that cleaning things up or increasing efficiency, at least as to our small sample size of cases.
I’m glad I can’t understand the mind of a murderer. Did he think the community and review journal would just say ok mr German was murdered let’s move on. Like in his mind what was the outcome going to be. I truly am baffled.
Let’s give credit where due. His disguise was pretty good.
Especially after the hat and shoes were cut into pieces. Bet Metro hardly recognized them.
That was a clever move. I can't believe they figured it out.
2:30, we can only guess what is occurring in such a deluded, tortured mind at the time this was conceived, but I'll take a crack at the issue.
It's guess work, but it did not seem like a total revenge move. He seemed to put great emphasis on preventing German from completing and publishing Article #4. Telles posted quite a bit on the upcoming fourth article, and clearly greatly dreaded it
Obviously, articles #1-#3 contributed heavily(or even caused) his re-election defeat and presumably created serious domestic difficulties as a probable affair was also exposed.
But, after Article#3, yes he was defeated, but he still had his law license(so presumably he could slide right back into private practice) could even run again in the future(and perhaps even for the very same position he just failed to get re-elected in), plus he may have had a good chance to preserve his family situation.
So, it could be that he perceived article #4 was going to be so withering that it would not only jeopardize his law license, but that it would also reveal details that effectively eliminated any realistic chance to preserve his marriage.
I of course realize this is all speculation on my part, as only he could truly know his motivation. But other people are suggesting exactly what I am–that it was not a total revenge job, but that there also seemed to be a real goal to prevent article #4, as article#4 would be the death knell to any real chance to preserve his law license and his marriage.
It has also been strongly implied in media outlets that article #4 would reveal so much more than articles #1-#3 combined. And, again,Telles himself really seemed to dread upcoming article #4 and would post on the situation
But, of course, now we will never know.
7:03, it was clearly a revenge killing, but it is true that Telles appeared to dread the prospect of article #4, and may have timed the murder, in part, to occur in time to prevent article #4
German's digging and reporting was, as always, exceptional, but I'm not sure why three such pieces were published, and that a fourth was on the way.
Telles position is an important one, but one that has very little visibility or interest with the general public. The first article hit all the high notes–the alleged affair(along with accompanying video), the alleged hostile work environment, supposed preferential treatment for some at the expense of more veteran staff members, etc.
In my view, articles #2 and #3 did not add a lot of valuable info. not included in the first article. Perhaps as you suggest, article #4 was going to reveal some real interesting, hitherto unknown, information.
But had it all occurred in one article, in one fell swoop, perhaps Telles could have kept a grip on his sanity. But he probably could no longer tolerate an existence of pending dread wherein it seemed every few weeks another tortuous article would occur.
7:03 and 7:32 raise some interesting points, but, yes, as they both concede, their points are essentially guesswork and only Telles knows his true motivations.
That said, I definitely agree with 7:32 that the first article did the trick, checked the main boxes, and that articles #2 and #3 did not appear to break a lot of new ground.
I assume the posters here have viewed the few photographs that emerged from German's interactions with Telles, and I believe they accompanied the first article. The last photo in the series is, in retrospect both disturbing, unsettling, yet at the same time somewhat interesting.
Telles is showing something to German and appears to be laughing a bit about it, while German is politely smiling, and seems at least mildly amused at whatever it is. Seeing that seemingly candid, impromptu photo., no one would ever imagine the tragedy that would follow.
Agree with all the posters that no one could predict something of this magnitude, but one poster pointed out something in a post weeks before the murder.
Some time ago, a reporter(and I believe it pre-dated the German investigation and I bleieve the reporter was not German) contacted Telles with a few questions about something concerning the office, and that Telles, simply because a reporter contacted him, behaved as if the Gestapo was after him.
So, even though no ne could predict something like this, he apparently was thin-skinned to the point of very serious over-reactions to matters which hardly justified such a disproportionate response.
Considering the often very aggressive approach of much modern journalism, if I was contacted by a reporter I too might behave as if the Gestapo was after me.
That said, German's often relentless style served the public good, exposed so much corruption and impropriety over four decades, and he always had the facts and solid, quoted sources to support all serious assertions.
He was truly one of the great ones. A truly free society must have some journalists of this caliber.
7:03 has it right. Against all odds Telles convinced his wife that the articles were false and he was not having an affair. They were just in the backseat of a car talking. But for article #4 German had requested Telles’s texts with his lover. Once those were published it would have blown up Telles’s story to his wife. He also would likely have been publicly reprimanded by the bar for making false statements to a journalist which would have negatively impacted his private practice. By silencing German, he believed he had a chance to preserve his marriage and his private practice.
It’s of course still crazy. Even article #4 would likely not have cost him his license. He would have lost his marriage but he was young enough to find another. Bad move Robbie boy.
"He also would likely have been publicly reprimanded by the bar for making false statements to a journalist which would have negatively impacted his private practice."
What RPC is that? Rule 3.35 (Candor Toward The Fourth Estate)? There have been not a few politicians lie to the media. Am I dense? A politician, who happens to be a lawyer, lies to the press about an affair and the bar is going to reprimand over that? Huh?
Read this month's NevadaLawyer magazine. Ironically, there is an article explaining your sarcastic question. I thought it was obvious, but I guess not since it is likely others also do not understand why it is important that lawyers do no lie regardless of the venue.
I knew Rob. I am so devastated by what he allegedly did. I have felt ill from it all week. I question my judgment, whether I actually knew him. Whether our friendship was a big fraud, a big act he put on. I keep thinking about what it must have been like for Jeff German to be ambushed, knocked to the ground and stabbed to death. To know that this is it. I keep thinking about not just a horrific murder, but that Rob, as an elected official, had such little regard for free speech. That he had such little regard for German's life, and for the lives of all the people that loved both Rob and German. Rob hurt so many people. Rob could have still had a pretty great life, if he had just moved on with things. My heart aches for Jeff German, for Rob's family, for German's family. Why, Rob? Why would you do this?
3:09, I suspect you are being WAY too hard on yourself. You have no reason to question how perceptive you are, or whether you are a dreadful judge of human character, etc.
Those who are presumably much closer to him than you ever were(such as his wife, children, siblings, parents, etc.) are probably shocked beyond belief.
Now even of we allow that such people are way too close to him to have any real objectivity, let's assume that Telles had a few friends who were closer to him than you are. I bet they are all shocked beyond belief, even if some of them are experts in the field of human behavior, or whatever.
Point is we just can't always tell. And, no, I don't buy that it always must be "inside someone" at some level, and then it finally erupts, and perhaps we should have seen it coming, etc.
Sometimes functioning people, who ordinarily would be totally incapable of such acts, become so stressed, so miserable, and so depressed that they pretty much get mentally re-programmed and become an entirely different person, at lest long enough to commit a heinous act they ordinarily would have been totally incapable of. Certainly not common, but it does happen, and happened here.
No one could forsee anything of this magnitude. He may have been a poor manger, and may in fact have fostered a hostile work environment.
And, yes, he may have disregarded boundaries when he was in Boyd Student Government, or whatever those allegations are. But none of that would remotely explain this eventual tragedy.
3:09 PM here.
3:25, you are a ghoul.
Thank you for your perspective 3:32 PM. I don't really understand my feelings right now. I appreciate your words. Maybe as time passes I will be able to sort things out. Of all the people hurting from this, I am definitely on the peripheral. He hurt A LOT of people. If you believe in prayer, keep the families of both men in them. They are at the epicenter and I can't even wrap my head around what they are going through right now. They are going to need a lot of love.
So many of us are shocked and processing on the levels you mention – the sadness for the victim, the disbelief about someone who presented one side or another to us as a community, you name it. I don't have answers, I keep looking for a lesson probably as a coping mechanism.
The fact that there has not been an announcement from Telles’s attorney that he is innocent and that Telles looks forward to vindication speaks volumes. From the looks of it Telles has not even been able to access social media since his arrest.
5:14, ordinarily there would be an announcement that he is innocent and looks forward to vindication.
But even Telles and his attorney(if he has one by this time) presumably recognize how ludicrous it would be for them to offer those standard denials under the bizarre(and already blatantly proved) facts of this case.
On 9/11/01 Judge Denton was presiding over a large multi-party construction defect trial. There were at least 15 different lawyers involved in that case for the various parties. A few of us showed up for court that morning, not yet fully aware of the magnitude and gravity of the situation. Denton came into the courtroom looking pale and little bewildered. He sent us home.
It's weird to ponder just how different the world has been since that day..
thanks for information.
I am not a crim lawyer so I do not understand this. I see the woman who hit the girls with her SUV was originally charged with attempted murder. But it gets plead down to reckless driving, even though she intentionally hit them and caused them to be hospitalized with "multiple bone fractures." 3 years probation and a mental health program? Seriously?
Admittedly I don't know the details of the case. Was there a real possibility she'd avoid conviction because she's incompetent or something? Or are we just excusing every evil thing people do as a "mental health issue" these days?
Something to ponder: Will another journalist pick up where German left off and complete the final article?
Perhaps. But it will all come out through the police investigation. Part of proving motive will be to show what was in Telles’s texts to his lover that German submitted a public records request for. Presumably the texts were very explicit which is why Telles had to kill to keep them from getting out.