Hearing for brothel owner set for May 17

By Mick Akers

Wednesday, May 3, 2017 | 11 a.m.

A show cause hearing has been set for May 17 to address a pair of code violations involving six prostitutes at one of Dennis Hof’s Nye County brothels.

The matter, briefly discussed by the Nye County Commission on Tuesday to set the show cause hearing, concerns allegations that six prostitutes out of 12 working on Feb. 11 at the Area 51 Death Valley Cathouse in Amargosa Valley did not have current work permits or current medical examinations.

Nye County codes require every working prostitute in a brothel to complete a medical exam every seven days and to be registered with the Nye County Sheriff's Office on a quarterly basis.

The Area 51 Death Valley Cathouse is allowed to have five prostitutes working at a given time, and Hof said that only six girls were actually working — five on duty and one on standby to fill in others’ days off. The others had their cards in a drawer onsite, but were not present at the time of the February inspection, Hof said.

Nye County Commissioner Dan Schinhofen, who called the allegations as serious as he’s seen associated with brothel violations, originally wanted to set the date for the show cause hearing for May 8, but time constraints among involved departments delayed it. The county commission has a regularly scheduled meeting on May 16, but members said that the meeting was already loaded.

Hof faces possible suspension of his license and fines for the violations.