Jury selection begins for ex-politician accused of killing Las Vegas investigative reporter

Ken Ritter
| Associated Press

Las Vegas — The trial of a Las Vegas-area politician accused of killing an investigative reporter who wrote articles critical of him will take center stage in Nevada on Monday, with jury selection scheduled to begin in a case that stunned Sin City and the world of journalism.

“It turned everything upside down,” Tom Pitaro, a veteran Las Vegas defense attorney, said of the death of reporter Jeff German, who for 44 years developed deep confidential sources into the city, its government and its courthouses.

Pitaro also taught Robert Telles, the public servant accused of killing German, in law school about a decade ago at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“When you have a public official, a respected journalist and what kind of murder it was, I think people are in shock as to how this could happen,” Pitaro said.

The murder on the Labor Day weekend of 2022 attracted a lot of attention. German, 69, became the only journalist killed in the United States among at least 67 news media workers killed worldwide that year, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Originally from Milwaukee, German was widely respected for reporting on the courts, organized crime, government corruption, political scandals and mass shootings, first at the Las Vegas Sun and then at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Prosecutors say articles he wrote in early 2022 about Telles and a county office in turmoil were a motive for the murder.

German was found slashed and stabbed to death in a side yard outside her home where Telles is accused in a criminal complaint of “lying in wait” for German to come out.

Telles, 47, was arrested days later, after police circulated video of a person wearing an orange work shirt and a wide-brimmed straw hat carrying a shoulder bag and walking toward German’s home. Police also released photos of a distinctive maroon SUV that a Review-Journal photographer saw Telles washing outside his home several days after the murder.

Telles grew up in El Paso, Texas, and lived in Colorado before moving to Las Vegas. He became an attorney in 2015 and ran as a Democrat in 2018 to become Clark County property manager. He lost his elected position after the arrest and his law license was suspended.

He has pleaded not guilty to open murder and faces life in prison if convicted. He has been in jail while he prepared to face a jury.

“He has been looking forward to the trial,” Telle’s defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, said ahead of Monday’s arraignment. “He wants to tell his story.”

More than 100 prospective jurors filled out questionnaires about what they have heard about German’s killing and Telle’s arrest. Interviewing and empaneling 12 jurors and several alternates can take several days. The testimony is expected to take less than two weeks. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

First, however, Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt will hear a final request Monday to dismiss the case against Telles and suspend the trial.

In a court filing, Telles claims he was illegally detained by police before his arrest; officer’s body-worn camera video of the traffic stop during which he was taken into custody was improperly deleted; and hospital blood samples taken after his arrest and treatment for what he has called self-inflicted cuts to his wrists were not entered into evidence in his case.

Leavitt has rejected other requests to dismiss the case while Telles hired and fired attorneys and served as his own defense attorney. Telles twice tried to have Leavitt removed from her case, claiming she was biased against him.

German’s relatives have not spoken publicly about the murder. Family spokesman and friend George McCabe said Friday they declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Prosecutors say they have strong evidence including DNA believed to be from Telles found under German’s fingernails and cut up pieces of a straw hat and shoes found in Telle’s house that were similar to those worn by the person seen on video outside German’s home.

Telles wanted his trial to proceed quickly. But progress was delayed in part by a legal battle the Review-Journal took to the state Supreme Court to protect public disclosure of confidential sources on German cell phones and computers.

The newspaper argued that names and unpublished material were protected from disclosure by the First Amendment and Nevada state law. Police claimed their investigation would not be complete until the units were searched for possible evidence. The court gave the newspaper, its lawyers and consultants time to review the files first.

An attorney representing the Review-Journal told the judge last week that the review will be completed in time to turn over records to police, prosecutors and Telle’s attorneys before jury selection begins.

Telles also wants Leavitt to issue an order blocking testimony at the trial of a hostile workplace and discrimination lawsuit filed in federal court by four women who work in the office he led against Telles and Clark County.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has collected records of 17 journalists and media workers killed in the United States since 1992, including 15 whose deaths were found to be work-related.

“Killings of journalists in the United States are incredibly rare, thank God,” said Katherine Jacobsen, a program coordinator at the organization. “An attempt on your life in your own backyard is so far out of the norm that it’s really hard to prepare for situations like this.”

Gabe Rottman, of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, DC, agreed that killings are rare but said that journalists in the United States may face threats from protesters or law enforcement while covering civil unrest or violence.

“The ability of journalists to do their jobs freely and safely is critical to the public’s ability to hold public officials accountable,” Rottman said. “The most serious way to close the public’s eyes to what is happening is to threaten the life of a journalist for doing his job. That must not happen.”