McDonald under surveillance

Keith Paul

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2001 | 11:47 a.m.

Metro Police, who were investigating allegations by Michael McDonald that he was being stalked, found out that the Las Vegas City Councilman is the target of a law enforcement surveillance. McDonald called a Metro officer in early February and filed a complaint alleging he was the victim of stalking. He told the officer there were people in several cars who had been following him for the previous several weeks, Metro officials told the Sun.

"The officer directed the report to me for the initial investigation because the officer suspected the councilman may have been under surveillance by some law enforcement agency," said Deputy Chief Mike Hawkins, commander of the special operations division.

"We determined there was no crime and what Councilman McDonald observed was a lawful surveillance by a law enforcement agency."

Hawkins, who would not identify the agency, said he has directed an officer to contact McDonald and inform the councilman that he was coult not being stalked, but was under surveillance by a law enforcement agency.

McDonald, a former Metro officer, was in a meeting this morning and could not reached for comment.

Hawkins said Metro was not following McDonald. Since it was obvious to Hawkins that someone was staking out McDonald, he called another law enforcement agency, which confirmed the councilman was indeed the target of a surveillance.

Hawkins said he didn't know the reason for the surveillance.

McDonald wrote down the license plate numbers and videotaped the cars following him and submitted the videotape and the plate numbers to Metro when he made his complaint.

"I reviewed the tape, and it was glaringly apparent it was a law enforcement surveillance. I contacted another law enforcement agency to determine if they were conducting the surveillance," Hawkins said.

Special Agent Daron W. Borst, a spokesman for the Las Vegas FBI office, said this morning he would neither confirm nor deny local FBI agents had McDonald under surveillance.

It is standard for FBI officials not to comment about cases or possible targets of investigations until after the investigation is completed.

The robbery unit normally investigates stalking cases, but since the officer who took the report and the tape suspected the councilman may be the target of law enforcement surveillance, he contacted Hawkins, who has the intelligence unit under his command.

"There was never a crime committed, and the case has been closed," Hawkins said. "The complaint and videotape will be returned to Councilman McDonald."

Hawkins said Metro did not conduct the surveillance on McDonald, but the agency has recently investigated the councilman's actions involving the financially troubled Las Vegas Sportspark and looked into allegations he was trying to block a tavern license for political consultant Sig Rogich. Hawkins said that probe was an "overt" investigation, and there was no surveillance of the councilman by Metro in that case.

Police believe they found evidence for criminal charges in that case and forwarded it to the Clark County district attorney's office. Prosecutors determined they would not be able to prove the case in court and didn't pursue charges.

However, the Las Vegas ethics board found McDonald violated city ethics laws. Then last week the Nevada Ethics Commission voted unanimously that the councilman violated two sub-sections of the state's ethics law by advocating the city purchase the Sportspark to help McDonald's boss out of a bad investment. The board split on whether the councilman's behavior was willful, thus deserving a fine.

McDonald still faces ramifications from the city ethics board findings, as the panel instructed its counsel, Frank Cremen, to file a malfeasance petition in District Court seeking to remove McDonald from office.

District Court Judge Jim Mahan has scheduled a March 20 hearing on the petition. If Mahan rules McDonald abused his position as a city councilman, state law gives him the power to remove McDonald from office.