Vegas Politician Has Bizarre 'Walter White Moment' Before Dramatic Arrest In Suspected Murder Of Local Reporter
This past Saturday morning 69 year-old Jeff German, an investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, was found murdered with multiple stab wounds he'd received outside his home the day before.
Las Vegas Police asked everyone in the neighborhood to 'review their video cameras at homes or businesses to see if they captured the suspect in the area', and by Tuesday they had what they were looking for:
With the alleged perp's terrible landscaper costume, unique gait, images of the red GMC Yukon Denali they drove, and a team of investigative reporters chomping at the bit to seek justice for their colleague, it was only a matter of time before police honed in on someone.
That someone was Clark County [Vegas] Public Administrator Robert Telles:
In fact, it was German's fellow reporters for the Review-Journal who tipped police off after they swung by Telles home 'on a hunch' Tuesday night and found him in his driveway next to his (you guessed it) red GMC Yukon Denali:
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By Wednesday morning police were at Telles' home conducting a search, towing his car & proceeded to take him in for an interview.
Adding to the car evidence, internet sleuths were piecing the puzzle together, too, and once again there was Telles with the (alleged) matching limp:
But wait - why would some random, small-time county politician (and married father of three with a lot to lose no-less) take someone's life? And why would German's fellow journalists already be suspicious of him?
The possible motive: "German’s investigation of Telles this year contributed to the Democrat’s primary election loss, and German was working on a potential follow-up story about Telles before he was killed".
Whew.
Via the Review-Journal:
German spent months reporting on the turmoil surrounding Telles’ oversight of the public administrator’s office.
The 45-year-old Democrat lost his re-election bid in June’s primary after German’s findings were published. German also had recently filed public records requests for emails and text messages between Telles and three other county officials: Assistant Public Administrator Rita Reid, estate coordinator Roberta Lee-Kennett and consultant Michael Murphy. Lee-Kennett was identified in previous stories as a subordinate staffer allegedly involved in an “inappropriate relationship” with Telles.
And there's clear evidence that Telles was pissed, because the guy was chirping about it all over Twitter all summer long:
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In hindsight all those 'crying laughing' emojis look more like the symbols of someone going off the rails with rage but trying to appear nonchalant.
But ok, back to the timeline of yesterday's events - As if things with Telles weren't already weird enough, they got even weirder once he was returned from being questioned by police. Like… Walter White meth suit weird. Like… 'even by Vegas standards' weird.
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At first I could not figure out why in the hell Telles would be rolling around dressed like that, especially when there's reporters all over & he's being scrutinized so heavily, but then I did some research apparently this is the jumpsuit police give you when they take your clothes for evidence. (No shit, Kate.)
And they must have (allegedly) found some because only hours later the police were back at his house in full force:
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And then finally
I'm interested to see how this case plays out and if any other county officials were involved or knew about the murder in advance, and most of all I hope justice is served for Jeff German & his loved ones. To cover corruption, crime & scandals in Las Vegas for 40-some years was no small feat.
Ron Futrell, of KLAS-TV, said,
"There's so many questions right now and answers we don't know to stuff, but I'll tell you he was fearless. That's one thing he was, and you can't do some of the stories he did without being fearless and that's what he was in that sense. You can see it in his writing."