Ex-Henderson mayor faces charges in altercation

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1999 | 11:33 a.m.

Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens today is trying to decide what, if any, charges to file against former Henderson Mayor Bob Groesbeck.

Groesbeck, 38, was arrested at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino at about 11 p.m. Friday after getting into a physical altercation with a Metro Police sergeant responding to a report that Groesbeck had repeatedly groped a woman at the resort.

He was booked into jail on suspicion of open and gross lewdness and of being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Groesbeck, who is general counsel for Republic Silver State Disposal Inc., was at the resort's House of Blues Foundation Room when the woman notified hotel security that she had been groped by a man in the private club.

Police were called to the club on the 47th floor of the resort.

"The officers responded to an inappropriate-contact call and when they went to make an arrest a scuffle started," Metro spokesman Steve Meriwether said. "In the process of making the arrest he (Groesbeck) put a sergeant in a headlock."

The sergeant suffered a lump on his head as a result of the headlock, police said.

Police gave Groesbeck a "gaze" test, which is a field test used to determine if someone is under the influence of a controlled substance. The test resulted in adding the controlled-substance charge.

Groesbeck was booked into the Clark County Detention Center Friday night and was released Saturday afternoon.

Groesbeck, who served one term as Henderson's mayor from 1993 to 1997, was instrumental in getting a 15-year extension of Silver State's garbage collection contract with the city of Las Vegas.

Henderson City Councilman Andy Hafen, who worked with Groesbeck during his tenure as mayor, said the charges were out of character for Groesbeck.

"It doesn't sound like Bob Groesbeck," Hafen said. "It makes me think there has to be more to the story. It just doesn't sound like the man I worked with for four years, but I guess we'll have to wait and see."