Fri, Feb 15, 2008 (2:07 a.m.)

Three months after he began what critics say was an unorthodox investigation into weapons and drugs missing from an evidence vault, the director of the Nevada Public Safety Department has announced his resignation.

Phillip Galeoto told department staff Tuesday that he would be stepping down Feb. 29 because it “simply seems that this is the time for me to retire from law enforcement ... ”

But a story Thursday by Las Vegas Sun reporter Jeff German raises a question of whether it really is that simple.

Galeoto began an internal review in late November of evidence missing from a vault in Fallon that is used by several law enforcement agencies, including the Nevada Highway Patrol.

The Sun reported that well-placed sources said the missing evidence included as many as 90 handguns and rifles and large quantities of methamphetamine and other drugs. They also said Galeoto, instead of assigning the case to internal investigators, as is normal, assigned it instead to handpicked senior officers.

“There’s a feeling they’re trying to cover something up,” one source told the Sun.

Also learned from the sources was that Galeoto delayed informing the state attorney general about the case. When the office was informed, it assigned a senior deputy to open a criminal investigation.

Also odd is that Galeoto, in the midst of his internal review, promoted the lieutenant whose duties included overseeing the Fallon vault. He promoted him to acting chief of the Investigations Division, and then, just recently, placed him back in his lieutenant’s job,

Galeoto’s Jan. 1, 2007, appointment by Gov. Jim Gibbons moments after Gibbons took the oath of office was controversial from the start. Galeoto’s credentials were questioned because he resigned from his lieutenant’s job with the Reno Police Department in 1999 during an internal investigation into why many warrants had not been entered into the department’s computer.

It is alarming when large quantities of guns and drugs go missing from an evidence vault. The attorney general’s office should give this case high priority.