Attorney General finds no evidence of violation by MPD Chief

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

Recent allegations against Mesquite Police Chief MaQuade Chelsey were dismissed in a letter from the Nevada Attorney General’s Office made public at the Mesquite City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 25.

The letter was read in its entirety by Mesquite Mayor Al Litman during the meeting. Litman said that the letter was dated May 18 and that, until it was made public to the city, the City Attorney and City Council had known nothing of its existence.

Litman explained that the original letter had been addressed, apparently as a response to a formal request, to former City Manager Aaron Baker.

Baker abruptly resigned his position on May 12.

The letter, as read by Litman, stated the following:

Dear Mr. Baker:
Thank you for contacting the office of the Nevada Attorney General regarding your complaint.

Since your communication with our office, your complaint was forwarded and reviewed by our investigative unit. We conducted a preliminary investigation but found no evidence of any criminal violation. As such, we believe that this matter has been addressed at the appropriate levels within the law enforcement system.

Accordingly, we have closed our investigation concerning your matter, and no criminal prosecution will be pursued.
If you become aware of direct evidence of criminal violations, please submit the information to our office for additional review and consideration.

Our office acts as legal counsel for state agencies and therefore cannot act as a private attorney to individual citizens. This includes giving legal advice opinions or interpretation of law to individuals.

Once again thanks for contacting the office of Attorney General. I hope you’ll find the above referenced information helpful.

Sincerely,
Aaron Ford
Nevada Attorney General.

Litman stated that this letter put to rest the allegations against Chesley for good.

These allegations arose on April 27 from a post to local website Mesquite Citizen Journal (MCJ). The article asserted that “multiple sources” had been contacted by investigators of the Nevada Attorney General regarding alleged inappropriate behavior by Chesley between the years 2015 and 2019. The alleged sources remained unnamed in the post and no proof of any of the alleged misconduct was made available in the piece.

Only Baker had been quoted in the post. He confirmed that “an individual” had made claims regarding “an employee.” Baker reportedly told the MCJ that, because of a conflict, the city was unable to investigate the matter internally. So the person filing the complaint was referred to the Attorney General’s office.

In his comments on Tuesday, Litman explained that the city had not engaged in any investigation because of a lack of any evidence.

“There was never anything to investigate; not in the past, not in the present and not ever,” Litman said. “It was just rumors that were not even firsthand or secondhand.”

Litman went on to caution the Mesquite public about believing and spreading rumors.

“Rumors are carried by haters, they’re spread by fools and they’re accepted by idiots,” Litman said. “These are not my words but the words of a number of religious scholars. Yet rumors still persist!”

Litman acknowledged that these were strong words, but he wanted to firmly dispel the rumors once and for all.

“What was ever alleged about our police chief were always false,” Litman added. “But the haters didn’t care. The fools that read those rumors and believed them are idiots. If I offended some of those that I refer to, I meant to. The rumor mongers hoped to open a can of worms, even though they knew there were no worms in the can.”

Litman also insisted that neither he, the city council nor the the MPOA had anything to do with the resignation of Baker.

“Again, that was all rumors spread by haters,” he said.

Litman cited that Mesquite has approximately 25,000 residents, and virtually all of them are good people. But he advised residents to avoid those few who are “evil.”

“Lie down with the dogs and you get fleas,” Litman concluded. “Time is a gift and we need to spend it doing good and only good.”

In a council comment at the meeting, Council member Wes Boger addressed concerns he had heard from local residents wondering why Chesley had not been put on administrative leave during an investigation.

“That would be the normal course of action if there was any evidence of wrongdoing,” Boger said. “The fact is, we didn’t have any evidence, not even a first had account of wrongdoing. The Attorney General’s office was contacted based on third hand rumors at best.”

Boger said it was clear that the group spreading these rumors had been agitated by numerous details of the Mayoral election in November 2020, which had not gone their way.

“Members of the MPOA are being targeted for standing up in the last election,” Boger said. “Opponents have gone after the school resource officer. They’ve gone after officers involved with subduing a violent man in the middle of traffic on Sandhill Blvd. They’ve made accusations and spread rumors about (MPD)Sergeant (Wyatt) Oliver and others. They have even gone after my family and I with ugly false rumors because I support our police.”

“But none of these attacks are as ugly or as devastating as what Chief Chesley has gone through,” Boger added. “The election was over six months ago. When does it stop?”

During the closing public comment of the meeting, Mesquite resident Mike Benham thanked Litman for standing up for Chesley.

“We are very lucky in Mesquite to have what we have got,” Benham said. “Look across the country and everywhere they are having trouble getting police officers and firefighters. Because whatever they do, they are scrutinized. I for one am proud of our police department.”

Others of the public were critical of the Mayor’s strong comments.

Mesquite resident June Smothers lauded the fact that, as a whole, the Mesquite community supports its police department. She said this is as it should be.

But many citizens still have concerns about the apparent power being wielded by the local police union over the City, Smothers said. Those concerns had not been adequately addressed, she said.

“When we back any organization, there is a risk of giving blanket approval to all they do so as not to appear unsupportive,” Smothers said. “So when is it permissible to look with a critical eye at the MPD or the MPOA and ask them to raise the bar of their collective and individual integrity? Is it possible to do that without being wrongly flagged as someone who wants to defund the police, or as ignorant or biased or an idiot or evil? Is that possible?”

“Constructive criticism is never a bad thing,” Smothers added. “Closing our eyes and playing blind to bad behavior is never a good thing.”

Mesquite resident Andrea Wahl criticized Litman for not providing a safe space for both sides to be heard on the issue. Wahl claimed that she and others had emailed the mayor several times over the past six months to try and start such a conversation. those emails had gone without response, she said.

“If we were actually given the same amount of credit and concern as the police union – if we were actually given time and understanding – but instead we have been dismissed as troublemakers, pot-stirrers, angry citizens and now, idiots!” Wahl said.

“I would have hoped that this council would have the best interest of all its citizens at heart,” Wahl added. “But I guess the blue line is shining too brightly to see any other color.”