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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 start 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 in the city, its government and its courthouses.
Pitaro also taught Robert Telles, the public official accused of killing German, in law school about a decade ago at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“When you have an office-holder, a respected journalist, and the kind of killing it was, I think people are in shock about how this could come about," Pitaro said.
The killing on Labor Day weekend 2022 drew widespread attention. German, 69, became the only journalist killed in the U.S. among at least 67 news media workers slain worldwide that year, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Originally from Milwaukee, German was widely respected for reporting about 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 that he wrote in early 2022 about Telles and a county office in turmoil were a motive for the killing.
German was found slashed and stabbed to death in a side yard outside his home where Telles is accused in a criminal complaint of “lying in wait” for German to come outside.
Telles, 47, was arrested days later, after police circulated video of a person wearing an orange work shirt and a wide-brim, straw hat toting a shoulder bag and walking toward German’s home. Police also released images of a distinctive maroon SUV like one that a Review-Journal photographer saw Telles washing outside his home several days after the killing.
Telles grew up in El Paso, Texas, and lived in Colorado before moving to Las Vegas. He became a lawyer in 2015 and ran as a Democrat in 2018 to become Clark County administrator of estates. He lost his elected position after his arrest and his law license was suspended.
He has pleaded not guilty to open murder and could face life in prison if convicted. He has remained jailed while preparing to face a jury.
“He’s been looking forward to trial,” Telles’ defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, said ahead of Monday’s proceedings. “He wants to tell his story.”
More than 100 prospective jurors filled out questionnaires about what they have heard about German’s killing and Telles’ arrest. Interviewing and empaneling 12 jurors and several alternates could take several days. 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 on Monday to dismiss the case against Telles and call off the trial.
In a court filing, Telles maintains he was illegally detained by police before his arrest; officer body-worn camera video of the traffic stop during which he was taken into custody was improperly deleted; and hospital blood tests taken following his arrest and treatment for what he has called self-inflicted slash wounds to his wrists weren't included as 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 lawyer. Telles twice tried to have Leavitt removed from his case, arguing she was biased against him.
German's relatives have not spoken publicly about the killing. Family spokesperson and friend George McCabe said Friday they declined to comment about the trial.
Prosecutors say they have strong evidence including DNA believed to be from Telles found beneath German’s fingernails and cut-up pieces of a straw hat and shoes found at Telles' house that resembled those worn by the person seen on video outside German's home.
Telles wanted his trial to occur 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’s cellphone and computers.
The newspaper argued names and unpublished material were protected from disclosure by the First Amendment and Nevada state law. Police argued their investigation wouldn’t be complete until the devices 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 the review process will be completed in time to turn over records to police, prosecutors and Telles' lawyers before jury selection begins.
Telles also wants Leavitt to issue a ruling blocking testimony at trial about a hostile workplace and a discrimination lawsuit that four women who work in the office he headed have pending in federal court against Telles and Clark County.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has gathered records of 17 journalists and media workers killed in the U.S since 1992, including 15 whose deaths were found to be work-related.
“Killings of journalists in the U.S. are exceedingly rare, thankfully," said Katherine Jacobsen, a program coordinator at the organization. "An attempt on your life in your own yard is so far out of the norm that it's really hard to prepare for situations like this.”
Gabe Rottman, at the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C., agreed that killings are uncommon but said journalists in the U.S. can face threats from protesters or law enforcers while covering civil unrest or violence.
“The ability of journalists to do their job freely and safely is essential for the public to be able to hold public officials accountable,” Rottman said. “The most severe way to shut the public's eyes to what's going on is to threaten a journalist's life for doing their job. That shouldn’t happen.”
