Small Town Politics Sets Mesquite At Odds

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The City of Mesquite has virtually torn itself apart over the past three weeks with bitter division and fierce contention. A string of open letters, written statements and public comments made in connection with the City’s mayoral race have set the community off into a rancorous political whirlwind.

It began with an explanation of endorsement sent out as a letter by the Mesquite Police Officers’ Association (MPOA). From there, it snowballed through various candidate responses, statements at political events, and even public comments before the Mesquite City Council. And it ended last week with a request for a formal investigation to be made into the matter.

The MPOA letter
On Oct. 8, a letter from the Mesquite Police Officers’ Association (MPOA) began showing up in mailboxes and on social media. Printed on MPOA letterhead and attributed only to “Your Men and Women in Blue”, the letter’s stated purpose was to explain the reasons for the Association’s endorsement of Mayor Al Litman in the current race for mayor.

It listed a number of grievances against the challenging candidate in the race, City Attorney Bob Sweetin. Among other things in the list was a brief section entitled “Friends with Benefits.”

This section alleged that Sweetin had abused his power in prosecuting a young man for conduct with a girl at the behest of the girl’s parents who were reportedly “upset” about the relationship.

The police investigation into the case had “…showed that no probable cause existed that showed any crime had been committed,” the letter claimed. “However, Mr. Sweetin pressured the department to refer the case to his office so he could press criminal charges.”

Sweetin’s persistence was motivated merely because he was good friends with the girl’s parents, the letter alleged.

The response
A strong response from Sweetin was released the following day. In that statement, Sweetin expressed disappointment in the MPOA for bringing up the case at all in this political setting.

Sweetin’s statement identified the case as “a sexual offense against a minor.” But he said that it was a four-year old case that had already been settled and all parties had moved on.
“The “boy” (who was actually a man), entered a plea deal, paid his debt to society, has reformed and is now living a very successful life,” the statement said.

“The author’s attempt to force them and their families to publicly relive it for political points is one of the most disappointing things I have experienced in my career in public service,” Sweetin added.

Too much information
Neither the MPOA letter, nor Sweetin’s response identified the specific case or named the people involved. But the families on both sides of the case felt that enough information had been released to bring the whole thing into the public spotlight.

“It is a small town and people know things,” said Marsha Woods, mother of the male defendant in the case, during an interview with The Progress. “It doesn’t take much for people to put two and two together and realize who it is talking about.”

Woods put all the blame on Sweetin. She felt that his response had provided ample detail for the public to identify the case.

Feeling victimized by the response, Woods said she went to a friend, Mesquite resident Jodi Thornley, who sympathized with her. Thornley invited Woods to a political campaign event hosted by the MPOA on October 9.

Thornley had been asked to make a statement for Mayor Al Litman at the event. Litman was unable to attend because he was in quarantine at the time after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

After reading the mayor’s brief statement, Thornley said that she would like to make her own statement which was not on behalf of the mayor.

Litman had, all along, denied any knowledge or involvement in the MPOA letter. Though he has accepted the Association’s endorsement, Litman has also stressed clearly that he wields no influence over the local union and that the MPOA acted completely independent of his campaign in sending out the letter.

More fuel for the fire
In her brief statement which followed, Thornley told attendees at the Meet and Greet that she was disappointed in Sweetin’s response. She felt that it had mischaracterized the case as something that it was not.

“He made it come across as a sexual offense,” Thornley said. “But the actual documents, and what the family understood, was that it was Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. He was 18 and she was 16, which I think is important to note.”

In the process of her statement, Thornley named the young man, identifying him as Broc Smith. She said that she had spoken to Smith on the phone and had his permission to mention his name. She also testified that she knew him to be a good person.

Smith was not at the meeting because he is away serving in the Marine Corps, Thornley said.
Thornley’s entire statement, as well as the other proceedings at the event was recorded on video and transmitted by live feed over an MPOA social media page.

Later, in a City Council Tech Review meeting held on October 20, Thornley said that she regretted having divulged Smith’s name in that way.
“Yes, I had permission to do that,” she said. “But was it the best thing to do? Obviously not. And I want to apologize for that. I own that, me alone.”

Comments at Council
With so many details now made public, the family on the other side of the case felt humiliated and violated.

On Tuesday, Oct. 13, the girl’s parents Shawn and Tara Tobler got up to read a prepared statement in a City Council meeting. When their statement ran over the usually allotted two minutes, Mayor Pro Tem Brian Wursten, who was presiding at the meeting in the mayor’s absence, allowed the statement to continue.

In the statement, Shawn Tobler blamed the MPOA for initiating the whole thing with their letter. He said that his family had been unfairly singled out by the letter and all that had followed it.

“I have now been forced to stand in a very public setting to set the facts straight and demand that the attacks on my family stop immediately,” Tobler said. “The MPOA has publicly shamed my family and misrepresented the facts of the case, all for political gain.”

After Shawn Tobler’s statement, his daughter Kylee Tobler, who was a juvenile at the time of the case, also stood to make a statement. She admitted entering into the relationship with Smith. Shortly after that, her parents had voiced concerned about a change they had seen in her and expressed a desire for her to stop seeing Smith. But she admitted to continuing in a secret relationship with Smith.

“In the course of our secret relationship, I was abused emotionally, physically and, one December night, I was assaulted sexually,” Tobler said.

This led to the charges being filed against Smith. The resulting court proceeding ended with Smith pleading to a Contributing to Delinquency of a Minor charge as well as a Temporary Protective Order forbidding Smith having any further contact with Tobler.

“I got the protection of a prolonged protective order so I could properly heal,” Kylee Tobler said. “And he would have it all wiped from his record, as long as he abided by the rules laid out by a judge.”

The other side of the case
In an interview with The Progress, Marsha Woods stated that there were many important facts missing in the Toblers’ statements.

“All of this casts my son in the worst possible light, like he is an abuser or a sex offender or something,” Woods said. “That is simply not true!”

Woods said that her son, who was also very young at the time, was completely in love with Tobler. “He would have done anything for her,” Woods said. “He was even willing to go to jail for her, rather than dragging her through a trial. That is what led to the settlement.”

Woods had kept a copy of the original police report on the investigation into the matter. The report chronicled details of the incidents as they came out in the investigation.

She explained that all the letters and other communications between her son and Tobler had been reviewed by the police during the investigation.

“When the police were able to get all the letters sent between them and look at both sides, they realized that this was just a case of two kids that are in love and her parents don’t want them together,” Woods said. “That’s all it was.”

Woods said that she just wanted the truth for her son. “I don’t want anybody to look bad, I really don’t,” Woods said. “I just want the truth to be out there. And if it makes people look bad for what they are saying, well, I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have gone out there and said this out vocally.”

At the Tech Review meeting held Oct. 20, Woods said that she was disappointed that the truth didn’t seem to matter to so many in the council chambers and in the community who support Sweetin. She expressed gratitude to the Mesquite Police Department for “standing up for the truth despite the repercussions.”

“My son is not guilty of the things that have been alleged against him,” Woods said. “He did not commit a sex crime. He was never prosecuted for a sexual offense.”

As Woods continued her statement in the meeting, she began to name the Toblers specifically and became critical of their actions and statements. At that point, Sweetin, acting as City Attorney, interrupted. Citing city code which prohibits derogatory comments toward private citizens during a public comment period, Sweetin said that Woods would be unable to continue with her statement.

Woods sat down but was given the opportunity later on in the meeting to continue without using derogatory statements against private citizens.

Call for an investigation
Also making public comments at the Tech Review meeting were more than a half-dozen other women who were critical of the MPOA for the letter and the damage it had caused. Many of these women said that they had been victims of sexual abuse themselves in their teens and early childhood. They said that the MPOA letter had triggered feelings from the past trauma they had suffered.

These commenters extended the blame past the MPOA to the Mesquite Police Department. They said that the letter equated to “victim shaming.”

“Victim-shaming should never happen under any circumstances,” said Katie Klein. “This situation was made worse by the fact that the victim-shaming was orchestrated by a police union.”

Andrea Wahl said that the incident had caused many in the community to lose trust in the police department altogether. “MPOA is admittedly a political action committee, but they are also made up of police officers who have access to sensitive information and resources that no one else does.”

Michelle Hall held the MPOA fully responsible because they had sent the initial letter which set everything else in motion. But she added that the responsibility runs much deeper than MPOA alone.

She noted an email string that was leaked to the public, showing an early draft of the letter being sent among a small group of city officials. Included in the string had been Mesquite Police Chief Maquade Chesley and City Councilman George Gault.

“Chief Chesley was directly involved with the letter through an email chain received from Sergeat (Wyatt) Oliver,” Hall said. “From there it was sent to Councilman Gault. So Gault was also involved in drafting the letter. Who else was involved? What resources from MPD were used to collect and help spread this confidential information?”

Hall called for a full investigation into the matter to find whether or not any laws, policies or ordinances had been violated.

Before the end of the meeting, Wursten had requested an item be placed on the agenda of the next council meeting to instruct staff to perform such an investigation.
“It was just at travesty that this was ever put on paper and sent out to everyone!” Wursten said.

That item is set to be heard at the Oct. 27 meeting.

Chesley’s response
In an interview with The Progress late last week, Chesley responded to questions about his involvement in drafting the MPOA letter. He first emphasized that the Mesquite Police Department administrators, himself included, are not members of the MPOA. In addition the MPOA is an entirely independent entity from the MPD, he said.

“The idea that the MPOA is the same entity as the police department is misinformed,” Chesley said. “The union doesn’t answer to me and they are completely independent of the police department. I cannot dictate their decisions.”

Chesley also spoke in defense of the rights of the union and its members to express their opinions, even though they are police officers. “I think it is their right to have an opinion and express it,” he said. “I will not silence the union members, nor would it be legal to do so.”

Finally Chesley admitted that he had been sent an early draft of the letter. It was sent to him to ask his opinion about it, he said. But before responding, Chesley saiud he forwarded the letter to Gault for his input as well.

“I look to George as someone who has seen and experienced almost everything,” Chesley explained. “His experience in working in, or with, government is extensive. I looked to him for insight on the document: the good and the bad, why it should or should not be publicized what kind of implications it might have on the department.”

Chesley said that asking for advice is hardly an isolated incident. Many times, he had sought advice in his job from the vast pool of experience that lives in Mesquite.

“This community is chock full of retired executives, public servants, and even police chiefs from other areas,” Chesley said. “I have depended on that experience in the past to assist our department being successful. So it is not something new to me to bounce something off someone who has done it before.”

Chesley said that he had sought that kind of advice from Gault and had deemed the input as valuable information, which he passed on.

From there Chesley said he never checked again with MPOA on what the final form the letter took. “The first time I read the final draft of the letter was when it arrived in my mailbox, just like everyone else,” he said.

Chesley assured that his intentions had been genuine. “I recognize that at this point it doesn’t look great that a police chief sent an email like that to a council member,” he said. “But the fact is, I respect George and I respect his opinions.”

In response to the question of how the MPD would go forward after the election, Chesley said that his officers would continue to uphold their mission to serve and protect the people of Mesquite, no matter what.

“That is our goal and we are going to do that no matter our implicit or explicit biases,” Chesley said. “I’m confident that the Mesquite Police Department will work with whoever is mayor and continue to fulfill our mission as well as we can.”

Gault’s response
In a separate interview, Gault gave a similar account of his involvement.
“The chief and I are friends and he called and asked if I would look at it because he had concerns about it,” Gault said. “So I looked at it and made a few suggestions. That was it.”

Gault related it never occurred to him that the ‘Friends with Benefits’ section of the letter would bring out so many specific names and details. “In the letter it was all pretty neutral, except the description of the MPOA’s perception of Bob’s handling of it,” he said.

Gault was disappointed that the common narrative about the case had framed the situation as a sex crime. He said he took the time to sit down with Woods and look through her case documents to review the facts that were there.

“I’m puzzled that this was presented as a sex crime because that is not what her son was charged with,” Gault said.

Gault also expressed deep regret that the episode had triggered so much pain to others who had been victimized in the past.
“I just really lament anything that had to do with sexual assault and the fact that it triggered memories of those episodes for a number of people who got up and testified at Tech Review,” Gault said. “That, I think, is very sad and I wish it had not happened.”

Sweetin’s response
In an interview late last week, Sweetin said that he would never have thought to use a case like this for political purposes. “It is a four year old case!” he said. “It was handled by a judge and the defendant was assisted by two extremely competent attorneys. A plea agreement was reached and everyone has moved on since then. What the MPOA did in dredging it all back up was absolutely reckless and disgusting!”

Final views from the families
In a final word, Woods said that she also felt bad for the victims of past abuses that had suffered because of this situation. But she insisted that this was not what her son had done.

“I can’t remain silent on this because I just can’t let people believe what they are believing about my son when it is not true. If it were true, he would never be able to serve his country as he is now.”

Woods added that if her son’s case had been a sex crimes case it would have been considered a more serious offense that likely would have been bound over to the district court in Las Vegas.

“Of course, with all of this going on right now convicting him in the court of public opinion so long after-the-fact, I almost wish that we would have sent it to trial into Las Vegas,” she said. “At least then maybe they would have gotten to the truth of it all.”

Shawn Tobler in a final statement interview said that, despite no charges of a sexual offense being made, that was still the basis of the misdemeanor charges that were finally presented.
“All I wanted was for him to go away and leave my daughter alone, which he would not do,” Tobler said.

“I didn’t want to destroy him or affect the rest of his life. I tried over a two-month period to get him to understand he was not welcome with her. Finally, I felt like my only option was to file a complaint with the police.”

Kylee Tobler said that nobody really knows what actually transpired at that time except Smith and her. That includes Smith’s mother, she said.
“She doesn’t know,” Kylee said. “He is not going to tell his mom about the things that he did to me.”

Again, Kylee placed the blame on the MPOA for re-opening the case in the eyes of the public in the first place. “I just think that it is extremely unfortunate that such a sensitive time in my life is being resurfaced in such a public way,” she said. “It has just hurt everyone and there was no good reason for any of it to have happened.”