Las Vegas cover-up allegations surface involving another incident

It smells like a cover-up in Las Vegas.

But this is not the Las Vegas massacre case where Stephen Paddock gunned down 58 people and injured hundreds more Oct. 1 in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States history.

This case dates back to a 2010 sheriff election and the department’s 911 communication calls involving an alleged domestic case that somehow appear to be missing.

The Baltimore Post-Examier first broke the story, “Was a Nevada Sheriff above the law” last year.

The story first came to light during the re-election campaign of then Sheriff Doug Gillespie who was running for a second term as Clark County Sheriff in 2010.

At one sheriff’s debate in May, which Gillespie was a no show, some serious allegations of official misconduct surfaced.

One of the persons who was running against Gillespie was Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Police Officer, Laurie Bisch, who served 17 years on the force.

In the audience that night was retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sergeant, Dave Freeman, a veteran of more than 30 years of service to the community.

Freeman posed this question to Candidate for Sheriff, Laurie Bisch:

“This question is a hypothetical. The most important trait for a candidate for sheriff is the character trait of integrity. That’s the most important thing. Also, I think critical thinking is an important character trait. So, I would like to ask you a hypothetical. How would you handle this situation as sheriff of Clark County?”

“Now it has come to your attention that one of the Metro employees had an inappropriate relationship with a female police officer which was a subordinate to that person and it developed into a domestic violence event at that person’s residence, where two Metro police officers responded and based on their investigation that an act of domestic violence had occurred. They attempted to arrest, make an arrest, but this employee, they were not successful because the employee said he was of such high rank that they did not have the authority to make an arrest. In other words that this person was above the law. Now additionally, the event number that was assigned to them, of his, was deleted. Mysteriously disappeared. And lastly, the female subordinate involved, one in question was promoted.”

Laurie Bisch responded; “That isn’t a hypothetical story. That is an absolute true story and I think those of us who know, know that’s a true story and I won’t mention any names but I can tell you right now per NRS [Nevada Revised Statutes] there’s only three people who can arrest the sheriff, and that is the coroner, the district attorney and Catherine Cortez Masto, the Attorney General.”

“…. That is a call that did come out of the sheriff’s house. And the event was changed, it was changed from an original domestic violence call and six hours later it was reported as a burglary alarm, Bisch said.”

“Where’s is the integrity, where’s the integrity for everyone that responded to that call, it wasn’t one person, it wasn’t two people, it was a lot of people.”

“We had another situation where another high-ranking person was involved in a domestic violence incident at his house. If that was anybody of you know of – regular police officer, civilian, even sergeants or lieutenants – we would have been booked in jail and so would anybody else in this room.”

“And there is no person more important on our department to set the example than the sheriff and in this case, they didn’t, and they think they got away with something, but I think there’s other folks that are looking into this at a much higher level than we are and let’s hope that the truth comes out.”

One current member of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department who spoke to the Baltimore Post-Examiner, under the condition of anonymity, recently confirmed what Bisch had said. The officer claimed several high-ranking officers, including deputy chiefs were involved in this incident. The officer said employees were threatened and remained silent in fear of losing their jobs.

The original event number was deleted from the 911 Communications Center computers and along with it all information relating to the original call, the officer said. Another event number was generated for a fictitious call of an alarm at the sheriff’s home, the officer said.

The officer said alleged domestic violence call was replaced with a bogus incident.

Doug Gillespie could not be reached for comment.

Sheriff Joe Lombardo was promoted in 2011 to assistant sheriff by then Gillespie. Lombardo ran for sheriff in 2014 when Gillespie announced he wouldn’t be running for a third term.

Gillespie supported Lombardo during the campaign.