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Dan Roberts<br />
Failure of our Law Enforcement<br />
Roberts Rules<br />
“Trust us.” That was the constant phrase<br />
used by law enforcement agencies regarding<br />
the guardianship scandal.<br />
It took The <strong>Vegas</strong> <strong>Voice</strong> over 18 months of<br />
assisting, helping, and then patiently waiting<br />
to finally understand that “trust us” was simply<br />
“government speak” for “not our problem.”<br />
As regular readers are well aware, The <strong>Vegas</strong><br />
<strong>Voice</strong> has extensively investigated and wrote<br />
about the Nevada Guardianship system. From<br />
outright stealing, bold-face lies to complete<br />
judicial indifference (and protecting their<br />
own) we have exposed those individuals that<br />
should face the consequences for their wrongful<br />
conduct.<br />
We begin with our District Attorney, Steve<br />
Wolfson. Despite overwhelming evidence<br />
provided by many families – and especially<br />
by our guest guardianship columnists, Steve<br />
Miller and Richard Black, the DA has done<br />
nothing to prosecute this criminal wrongdoing.<br />
Absolutely nothing.<br />
In fairness to Mr. Wolfson, nobody had any<br />
confidence in him in the first place. “Mr. Incompetence”<br />
never showed any interest in<br />
prosecuting the bad guardianship guys and<br />
directed the victims to merely seek help from<br />
the Family Court.<br />
Apparently Mr. Incompetence was, and remains,<br />
too busy promoting his TV program,<br />
Las <strong>Vegas</strong> Law (What you haven’t seen it?<br />
Don’t feel bad, nobody else has either) to concern<br />
himself with anything regarding guardianship<br />
wrongdoing. Since we regrettably accepted<br />
his incompetence years ago, we really<br />
can’t blame him for not doing anything.<br />
No, our biggest disappointment goes to the<br />
Nevada Attorney General, Adam Laxalt. Our<br />
mistake: we really believed him when he told<br />
guardianship victims and reformers to “trust<br />
us.”<br />
Our first meeting occurred on March 11,<br />
2015. Political editor Rana Goodman, Rick<br />
Black (and wife Terri)<br />
and yours truly met<br />
with the AG<br />
representatives<br />
in Carson<br />
City. At that<br />
time and place,<br />
they advised and urged<br />
that we should get<br />
as many victims<br />
as possible and<br />
obtain as much<br />
documentation<br />
necessary to support<br />
their claims<br />
and forward it directly<br />
to the AG.<br />
There are no words to describe how diligently<br />
and zealously Rick worked to roundup<br />
the victims. He provided at least 30 separate<br />
family cases.<br />
Additionally, my Rana put together packages<br />
and provided guidance and transportation<br />
for guardianship victims to meet with the Attorney<br />
General’s office. Not only that, she also<br />
did the running around to various medical<br />
facilities (at the behest of AG investigators) to<br />
obtain missing medical records.<br />
And then five months later, in late September,<br />
2015, the “Joint Task Force”, armed<br />
with subpoenas raided private guardian April<br />
Parks’ office and home. They seized boxes<br />
and boxes of documentation.<br />
Victims and advocates applauded such law<br />
enforcement actions and waited for justice.<br />
And waited…and waited.<br />
Over one year has elapsed since the raid,<br />
18 months since the Attorney General started<br />
to receive paperwork from Rana, Rick (and<br />
countless others) and the results were…<br />
well, April Parks left the<br />
state and now resides in<br />
Pennsylvania.<br />
There’s now<br />
a lot of talk that<br />
Mr. Laxalt does<br />
not have “primary<br />
jurisdiction” even<br />
though Nevada law<br />
(NRS 228.120) grants<br />
the Attorney General<br />
the right to do<br />
so. They point to<br />
DA Wolfson.<br />
If we accept<br />
that logic, why did the<br />
Nevada Attorney General offer to take the information<br />
in the first place? It appears that all<br />
our work, and most importantly, our faith and<br />
hopes were misplaced.<br />
Mr. Laxalt certainly talked a good game,<br />
and we admit we fell for the “trust us” language.<br />
Apparently the chief law enforcement<br />
agency in the state is helpless to assist the<br />
citizens-victims and Attorney General Laxalt<br />
should, therefore, be excused from any blame.<br />
By his own admission, he is, “Mr. Irrelevant.”<br />
As for (former) private guardian Ms. Parks?<br />
She’s still laughing at Nevada law enforcement.<br />
Parks has become a new “poster child”<br />
– Mad magazine’s Alfred E. (“What? Me Worry?”)<br />
Neuman.<br />
As for those seeking justice? Not one of the<br />
bad guys has faced any consequences and<br />
business remains as usual. Money stolen,<br />
families destroyed means nothing to our law<br />
enforcement agencies.<br />
Rest assured Rana, Rick and The <strong>Vegas</strong><br />
<strong>Voice</strong> will continue reporting about “Mr.<br />
Incompetent” and “Mr. Irrelevant.” And<br />
if one day, they really meant what they said<br />
(and promised) this publisher will be the first<br />
one to admit that I was wrong and give them<br />
credit for doing their jobs.<br />
Until then, when you hear them say “trust<br />
us,” try not to laugh out loud.<br />
november 16<br />
Paid for by Friends of Joe Heck<br />
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