A Nevada Democrat County Commissioner is accused of deleting text messages after orchestrating an alleged “quid pro quo” with Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) to delay a developer’s projects, resulting in its bankruptcy, according to a recent court filing.
Lawyers for developer Gypsum Resources accused Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones (D), who is a Nevada lawyer, of destroying “public records in an effort to conceal his improprieties relative to Gypsum,” in the court filing.
Jones, then a candidate for commissioner, allegedly colluded with Sisolak, then a commissioner running for governor, in 2018 to oppose one of Gypsum Resource’s proposed developments.
As the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported:
Last year, Gypsum Resources’s lawyers highlighted a pre-election email in October 2018 from Jones to a Sisolak campaign aide, which suggested that Sisolak could receive public support from environmental advocates — and Jones could dismiss Save Red Rock’s lawsuit against the county — if Sisolak opposed a vote on the project.
Days later, Sisolak announced his support for delaying any vote until after the election, when two new commissioners would be seated — one of whom wound up being Jones.
Once elected as commissioner, Jones delayed the vote on Gypsum Resources’ development until April 17, 2019, the court filing alleged.
Gypsum Resources says Jones is a material witness in their lawsuit alleging violation of the 5th amendment’s taking clause that says government cannot take property without due process, bias, and breach of contract against Clark County and its board of commissioners. A third party conducted the forensic audit because Jones only produced six messages from after the April vote after Jones was deposed, he was subpoenaed to produce all text messages “relevant” to the case last year.
However, Gypsum Resources’ lawyers reportedly obtained a text message thread between Jones and the former head of Nevada Conservation League Andy Maggi in October 2018, where Jones said, “Well, I’m doing my part. If Sisolak doesn’t want to play, then it’s going to blow up in his face tomorrow.”
A court-ordered forensic audit of Jones’ cell phone and iCloud accounts found that all of Jones’s text messages leading up to the April 2019 vote were deleted and unrecoverable, the court filing says. The earliest messages on Jones’s phone were from roughly six hours after the commission voted unanimously to deny Gypsum Resource’s request to waive a condition and proceed with their preliminary plan to develop 3,000 homes.
Although Jones called Gypsum Resources’ allegations a “relentless smear campaign,” his lawyers did not dispute the findings of the audits.
Jones told the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Gypsum and its lawyers have engaged in a relentless smear campaign against me since the day that I and my Commission colleagues unanimously voted to hold Gypsum to its own commitments regarding its ill-conceived plan to develop thousands of houses in Red Rock Canyon. This latest legal filing is just more of the same vindictive personal attacks designed to bolster its efforts to bankrupt the county.
The United States District Court for the District of Nevada is still deciding whether to hear Gypsum Resource’s request to impose sanctions on Jones and the county for allegedly destroying evidence.
If granted, the court could impose “significant monetary sanctions” against both Jones and Nevada’s Clark County. Given that Clark County recently struggled to make a multimillion dollar bond payment on the all new Raider’s Stadium amid shortfalls in room tax revenue, the lawsuit could spell financial ruin for the county.
The case is Gypsum Resources v. Clark County, No. 2:19-cv-00850-GMN-EJY in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada.