Las Vegas Township constable arrested on DUI count

By William D'Urso

Published Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013 | 10:10 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013 | 4 p.m.

Las Vegas Township Constable John Bonaventura was arrested Tuesday night on a count of driving under the influence after he was stopped in a Constable’s Office vehicle and failed a field sobriety test, the Nevada Highway Patrol reported.

Authorities were alerted about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday to a reckless driver heading southbound on U.S. 95 toward Boulder Highway, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Loy Hixson said.

Troopers stopped Bonventura, 50, in an unincorporated area behind the wheel of a Constable’s Office vehicle, Hixson said. Bonaventura was “completely compliant” but failed a preliminary breath test and another field sobriety test, Hixson said.

Bonaventura was booked into the Clark County Detention Center but was released around midmorning, according to Metro Police.

The arrest came the same day Clark County commissioners announced they would consider an ordinance to eliminate the Las Vegas Township Constable’s Office, which has been a source of commissioners’ scorn since shortly after Bonaventura took office in 2011.

Lou Toomin, a spokesman for the Constable's Office, said late in the afternoon Bonaventura and the office would not have any further statements Wednesday.

County Commission chair Steve Sisolak that because the constable was an elected position, there’s little the county could do to discipline him.

“He’s independently elected. He answers ultimately to the voters,” Sisolak said.

Sisolak pointed to several options currently being considered – including a proposed county ordinance and two bills in the Legislature – that could rein in the power of the Constable’s Office or eliminate it.

“The DUI is a personal issue as far as I’m concerned,” Sisolak said. “The only part it overlaps with the county is one, whether he was using an official vehicle, which it’s my understanding he was, and two, whether he had his weapon with him at the time.”