City hall surveillance videos showing a physical altercation between Las Vegas councilors Michele Fiore and Victoria Seaman on Jan. 11 were apparently deleted despite the review journal attempting to obtain the footage through requests for public records.
Since February, city officials have been slow to respond to requested video material, and specific requests have generated vague responses and no confirmation of the location and time of the dispute. Officials also said there were no emails between city officials related to the incident.
At one point, city lawyers said the newspaper would have to pay the city $ 63,680 and wait at least 150 business days for an employee to check all 150 surveillance cameras in the town hall. Officials also failed to inform the review journal of their video deletion policy – keeping surveillance video for 60 days – until the footage was likely deleted.
Richard Karpel, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, expressed concern about the way the city was handling the review journal’s video requests.
“The Nevada Public Records Act requires government officials to help requesters find what they’re looking for,” Karpel said. “In addition, local governments can be fined for willful violations of the law. For these reasons, the city of Las Vegas should be very, very nervous about what happened here. “
Several inquiries have been made amid ongoing coverage of an FBI investigation into Fiore’s campaign finances and an escalating high-profile feud of threats, allegations of bullying and legal action between the councilors’ two once allies.
City officials likely knew the exact location of the physical confrontation. In early February, a source told the Review Journal that the incident occurred on the seventh floor. Seven months later, it was discovered that the incident began on the second floor, but at that point the surveillance footage was apparently deleted, according to city lawyers.
Last week city officials said they would not comment on the issue and refused to specifically confirm whether any or all of the videos of the altercation were deleted.
Fiore has not responded to repeated requests for comment, and a Seaman spokeswoman said she did not want to talk about the disappearance of videos for “pending litigation”.
The confrontation
The argument, which was talked about a lot in town hall, took place on January 11 after a meeting of the Examination Oversight Committee, according to Seaman’s attorneys.
Seaman claims Fiore broke her finger and then grabbed her hair and knocked her to the ground in a private hallway on the second floor behind the city council rooms. The women had exchanged heated words after Seaman told Fiore that she felt Fiore disrespected her at the meeting, a source close to Seaman said.
A video of the meeting shows that Seaman, as chairwoman, was having some procedural issues when Fiore interrupted and asked the clerk, “Does your book instruct you what to say? Maybe we can fix that. “
Seaman replied, “It’s okay,” and took control of the meeting again.
Surveillance cameras are installed in the hallway on the second floor, which is reserved for the public. There are also cameras inside and outside an elevator that leads to the councilors’ offices on the seventh floor, a city hall source said.
Fiore and Seaman took their argument to the seventh floor, where Fiore slammed Mayor Carolyn Goodman’s office door in front of the council staff on Seaman, according to an informed source and Seaman’s attorneys.
In a September 8 response to a request in the Review Journal for Video, City Attorney Bryan Scott wrote, “To the best of my knowledge, the city’s video surveillance system will automatically delete recordings from the surveillance system after 60 calendar days.”
Scott said the city had “no records” of the newspaper’s request.
“Someone here is trying to hide something that is obviously of public interest,” said longtime defense attorney Todd Leventhal, a former prosecutor. “The city guards were required to confiscate this video for future civil or criminal proceedings.”
Former federal prosecutor Kathleen Bliss, now a defense attorney, was concerned about the course of events in connection with video recordings.
“There was no clarity here,” she said. “You have to look at that, because they are officials. I think the public needs to know what happened. “
Scott didn’t respond to any other questions last month, including the possibility the city allowed the routine deletion of videos of the battle between the two high profile elected officials. He didn’t answer last week, and city spokesman Jace Radke said the city had no further comment.
Public records
The review journal originally requested a video dated February 9th.
On February 24, the city posted a video in front of the public elevators on the seventh floor, but there was no footage of a fight. The video shows Fiore and Seaman stepping out of the elevator in the morning without looking at each other or talking to each other.
The review journal expanded the February 25 request to include videos from all city hall surveillance cameras showing the fight between the two city councilors.
A deputy prosecutor responded on March 4 that it would take at least 2,000 hours for a worker to check the cameras for combat footage, and the review journal cost $ 63,680. The MP did not inform the newspaper that any video of the fight would be automatically deleted within days of March 12th.
Given the five-digit bill and the long review time, a city reporter wrote to the city on March 8th that “we will not address this request at this time.”
In July, the gap between Fiore and Seaman widened after the Review Journal reported that the FBI was investigating Fiore’s finances for the campaign and political action committee. Seaman confirmed in the story that FBI agents questioned her about Fiore at City Hall.
Last month, Seaman’s lawyers sent a letter to Fiore asking her not to harass or harass her or to bring her to court.
The attorneys first disclosed details of the January 11th scuffle, claiming it was more serious than what reporters had heard.
Seaman has not filed a criminal complaint following the altercation, a source said. The city spokesman did not want to say whether city marshals have investigated.
Threat to sailor
Those close to Seaman said she was on high alert for receiving an anonymous death threat in August.
Without naming Seaman, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement it was conducting a “preliminary investigation” into an alleged threat against a Las Vegas councilor. The department had no further comment.
“When I received the death threat, it touched me and my family deeply and emotionally, to say the least,” Seaman said in a recent statement to the Review Journal. “I handed it over to the relevant authorities immediately.”
An informed source said Seaman is now being protected from the city’s marshals at public events, but the city spokesman would not confirm this, citing the practice of not commenting on security measures.
The threat came in a handwritten letter Seaman received on August 5th.
In the letter it says:
“You are doing a very bad job and you have to put an end to your life and I am happy to help you [sic] You do this. Heres [sic] something to think about. Bang yours [sic] dead. Whatever you do, don’t call the police or you can kiss your loved ones goodbye. “
The envelope containing the letter bears the surname and identification number of a female inmate from the Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center and the address of the state prison.
However, authorities do not believe the detainee was responsible for the threat, the informed source said.
Seaman was also the subject of a mysterious website, concouncilwoman.com, which criticized her. The website calls Seaman a “liar” and says she has a history of “fraudulent lawsuits.” The identity of the people behind the domain is anonymous, as online records show.
Seaman previously cited the website as an example of the types of falsehoods that are being spread about it.
On Wednesday, Seaman’s attorneys filed a lawsuit against anonymous “John Doe” defendants in Clark County District Court in order to identify the people behind the site.
Seaman claims the website made false and defamatory allegations about them and is seeking general and punitive damages.
Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter. German is a member of the Review Journal’s investigative team, which focuses on reporting, holding executives and authorities accountable, and exposing misconduct.
