NEVADA GOP
Nevada Republican Party
NEVADA REPUBLICAN PARTY SLAMS SISOLAK FOR DRAGGING FEET IN SEXUAL MISCONDUCT INVESTIGATION
Steve Sisolak waited eight years, until he was running for governor, to investigate allegations of misconduct by a public defender under his purview.
In 2010, Steve Sisolak received a memo from the District Attorney, which flagged a “longstanding history of sexual discrimination and harassment” in Clark County Public Defender Phil Kohn’s office. Sisolak stood down and allowed the behavior to go unchecked for eight years, until the allegations came up as Steve Sisolak was running for governor. Steve Sisolak needs to explain why he waited eight years to take action in the simplest of matters—why a credible accusation of sexual misconduct under his watch was ignored.
Clark County Public Defender Phil Kohn was accused of sexual misconduct, first in 2010 and then again in 2018. This year, Steve Sisolak and other county commissioners reportedly said the news came as a shock. However, one employee who spoke to the Las Vegas Review-Journal disagreed, saying, “I’m pretty sure every woman in the office has experienced this. It was definitely an open secret.”
Steve Sisolak either has not been asked, or has not answered, why his office waited for eight years to support an investigation into allegations that he was directly warned about and were reportedly an “open secret” in the county he purports to run.
In an attempt to obfuscate his inaction, Sisolak has loudly made election-year-noise about this issue, complaining that the months-long investigation was too slow. “This investigation should have come to a close by now, but I have seen no action,” Sisolak wrote. “It is unacceptable to allow any additional time to pass without a decisive response.”
However, it was Sisolak’s own inaction that caused this behavior to go unchecked for eight long years. If the speed of such an investigation is a concern as he runs for higher office, why did Sisolak ignore the allegations that were brought to him far earlier? It was unacceptable for Steve Sisolak to allow eight years to pass without a decisive response.
Last week, the investigation into Kohn concluded, and the report and any disciplinary actions taken have been kept secret. After eight years of Sisolak’s ineptitude and inaction, the public still does not know if the 2010 warnings that Sisolak received have yielded any concrete action. One employee who cooperated with the investigation even stated, “It looks like they are just trying to bury it because they won’t say the substance of the report, they won’t say if he is suspended.”
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