Former UNLV basketball player Chris Jeter who played on the Rebels’ 1990 national championship team against Duke is running for Justice of the Peace in Searchlight, Nevada. Tuesday, January 23, 2024.
Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Chris Jeter didn’t think twice when he decided to sell his house in Las Vegas to buy a mobile home in the nearby rural Searchlight Township because, the former UNLV big man said, there’s no place in the world he would rather be.
Searchlight, population 445, offers certain intangibles that are hard to find in a growing cityscape like Las Vegas, Jeter recently told the Sun. Chief among them: a close-knit community where everybody knows everybody.
“This is probably the best small town in America,” said Jeter, a longtime Metro Police officer who first moved to Searchlight about five years ago as part of a residency program and is winding down a decadeslong career with the department.
“To me, it’s a hidden gem,” Jeter continued. “There’s more coyotes here than people, and I love that. You don’t hear the helicopters, you don’t hear the street racers.
Jeter’s retirement takes effect in December, but the 6-foot-8 former Runnin’ Rebel will be plenty busy. Earlier this year he filed to run to be Searchlight’s sole justice of the peace.
Per state law, each township must have at least one justice court and at least one justice of the peace, who is elected to a six-year term and is responsible for setting bail, issuing search warrants and court summonses as well as protective orders and arrest warrants. Nevada’s justice court system presides over probable cause, arraignments and preliminary hearings in criminal cases, as well as matters relating to misdemeanors, bond forfeitures, evictions, small claims and civil cases.
In the years since being assigned the Searchlight beat, Jeter and his wife have moved into a house. His youngest son, former Bishop Gorman standout Chase Jeter, graduated from the University of Arizona in 2020 and is playing professionally in the Czech Republic. Leaving Metro to run for the Searchlight bench is a natural next step for the elder Jeter.
“I think for me, it’s more of a calling,” Jeter said. “From the minute I filed my papers, I wanted people to know what I stood for, that I’ll never put family and friends above the justice system or put myself above the justice system or the Constitution, or Nevada laws.”
Standing in opposition, however, is Justice Richard Hill, who has served in the position since 2010. Jeter said Hill has been a “phenomenal” officer of the court, but being the chief patrol officer there the past several years led Jeter to believe it’s time for a change.
“This town is more of a ‘good old boys’ type of thing, where a person commits a crime and it’s not really taken seriously around here. They’re out in one day or two days when they should be in jail or prison ... I got kind of tired of seeing that right there happen.”
Those who have known Jeter for a long time say he has all the makings of a successful judicial officer. Growing up in San Diego, he participated in his high school’s junior ROTC program. Having been a teenager in Southern California during the ’80s, as well as being so tall, basketball became a natural outlet. He remembers playing pickup games in the summer against “Showtime” Lakers greats like Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Kurt Rambis, James Worthy and others.
It was those pickup games that helped Jeter get discovered. Jeter started his collegiate career at the University of Missouri in the fall of 1987 but soon transferred to UNLV, where in addition to his basketball duties he also participated in the school’s ROTC program for four years.
Jeter’s tenure coincided with UNLV’s national championship run during the 1989-90 season and the following year when the Rebels lost in a rematch to Duke in the 1991 Final Four.
“Whatever was supposed to be done, he did it,” said Lois Tarkanian, wife of UNLV’s late legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian. She also serves on the Nevada System of Higher Education’s Board of Regents.
“Everything he’s done so far, he’s set his mind to it and he did it,” Lois Tarkanian continued. “And he did it well.”
But Jeter credits Jerry Tarkanian, who died nine years ago, for setting him up for success later in life. Even with the success of those UNLV squads in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, Tarkanian was well aware that not all of his players would go on to play professionally.
That includes Jeter, who despite his stature, averaged five minutes of playing time through 60 career college games.
“Tark was one of those coaches that really laid it out there for everybody to understand,” Jeter said. “Because he knew that everybody was not going to go to the NBA. His thing was knowing what your plans were for after college.”
For Jeter, he had long known he wanted to be a police officer. Years of organized basketball made Jeter into a creature of habit, so a regimented career like law enforcement was a natural fit. Jeter also says that, being the eldest of six children, he often felt the need to act as a protector to his younger siblings, especially outside the watch of his mother.
Even in college, teammates were sometimes reluctant to invite him out because he was such a stickler for the rules, he said.
One would think that being part of a national championship-winning roster would make him a local celebrity of sorts. And for a short time it did, Jeter said, but the public’s attitude toward the team drastically changed after it lost to the Blue Devils the following year.
“When we won the national championship, the world loved us,” Jeter said. “But by losing in ’91, everybody thought we threw the game … and everybody on the basketball team basically had a stigma towards them, whether they were superstars or not.”
Jeter, though, eventually was able to test into Metro’s police academy. There, he developed an expansive knowledge of Nevada laws and became a role model for others in the department, said Carlos Hank, who retired as a deputy chief for Metro in November.
“He’s always been a humble person, very down to earth,” Hank said of Jeter, adding that he was never a direct supervisor to Jeter but worked alongside him when they worked together at Metro’s Bolden Area Command. “He’s going to be fair, firm and consistent. And if you’re going to elect someone to be a judge in your area, you want them to be fair, firm and consistent.”
Metro declined comment for this story, citing Jeter’s continuing role with the department and his upcoming judicial run in order to maintain neutrality.
But Hank emphasizes that Jeter’s assignment to the residency program in itself shows he’s more than qualified for the justice position.
“You don’t just let anybody go out there,” Hank said. “Waiting for backup can take forever so you might be the only officer that’s on-duty. You have to have exceptional communication skills, you have to have exceptional knowledge of the law and a very broad knowledge. That’s what they expect out there so you can handle all kinds of situations by yourself.”
Where Jeter could run into trouble, however, is that he represents a change to the status quo. Hill, the current justice of the peace, ran unopposed in 2018. And with a town of less than 500 people, voting for a new face could prove to be easier said than done.
“I think that’s a challenge for anybody, to tell you the truth,” Tarkanian said. “But I think that he would meet such a challenge well.”
To Jeter, the challenge is welcome.
“I’m in it to win it,” he said. “If you want things to stay the same, I’m probably not your guy. If you want change, if you want discipline, I’m probably your guy.”
