Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Jeff German: Morale problems escalating at LV constable’s office

LAS VEGAS CONSTABLE Bob Nolen is facing more unrest among his employees.

One of his top deputies, Dave Burress, is speaking out against him as the 1996 campaign season heats up.

Earlier this month, a majority of deputies and support staff told me in an interview that Nolen has been "abusive" toward them and has been running the office as if accountable to no one.

Nolen, a former city councilman with strong political ties, denied the allegations, saying the office is being run more efficiently than ever before.

And his performance on the job was backed by top county officials.

The morale problems, however, persist.

All but one former deputy, Leonard Griffin, who's running against Nolen this year, spoke to me earlier in the month on the condition they not be identified.

Griffin, instrumental in forming the Las Vegas Constables Association to protect the rights of Nolen's deputies, charged that employees are constantly being intimidated by Nolen.

Burress is taking things a step further.

The ex-Metro cop, hired by Nolen two years ago, is accusing Nolen and his chief deputy, Doug Tharp, of harassing him because of his role as president of the Constables Association.

"This labor dispute has turned into a witchhunt by you and Doug Tharp, and you seem bound and determined to bring down the Las Vegas Constables Association and anyone associated with it," Burress says in a memo to Nolen.

The memo rebuts a letter of reprimand Burress received from Nolen April 2 for allegedly violating office policy last month when he handcuffed an evicted woman who had gone back into her apartment.

Burress was in the area when he heard a call over the radio for Metro Police units to respond to the apartment complex. He intervened after observing the woman, whom he later learned was pregnant, coming out of her apartment.

Several days later, the woman's boyfriend telephoned Nolen to complain about the way she was treated by Burress.

Burress denies mistreating the woman, and his conduct was backed up by one of the police officers called to the scene of the disturbance.

Officer John Gorski, it turns out, wrote a memo to Nolen speaking well of the way Burress handled himself.

But it it didn't stop Nolen from issuing his reprimand.

"As you have been instructed in the past, this office does not involve itself in the enforcement of the criminal statutes," Nolen writes. "As you are aware, your official duties ended when you completed the eviction on March 19. Any actions taken by you after that time were outside the scope of your official duties."

Burress responds in his memo that Nolen is selectively enforcing that rule.

"Your investigation was one-sided and unfairly limited toward punishing me," he writes.

He says another deputy, Rick Yohner, told him that he was ordered by Nolen to return to an apartment complex owned by a friend of Nolen and remove someone who had been evicted.

"It is obvious that we are allowed to circumvent policies and procedures when they apply to your friends, but are not allowed to use our own discretion," Burress writes.

Nolen was out of the state and could not be reached for comment. Tharp declined comment.

But Burress hasn't been afraid to talk.

He tells me he hopes Nolen will be persuaded to remove the letter of reprimand from his file.

The latest round of office problems, Burress says, began after he and several other deputies formed the Constables Association and filed a labor grievance against Nolen with the state.

"He's looking for little things to make us look bad," Burress says. "Morale in the office is terrible. Everybody's looking over their shoulders."

Unless the unhappiness subsides, we may be hearing a lot more about the election-year rebellion in the constable's office in the weeks ahead.

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