Full ethics panel to decide if Shafer misused his office

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2005 | 9:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A panel of the state Ethics Commission has found that the full commission should decide whether former Clark County Public Administrator Jared Shafer misused his office to gain a lucrative contract in a probate matter.

According to the complaint filed with the commission, Shafer used his office to get involved in a probate case in order to gain control over a potentially lucrative wrongful death action. He became special administrator to gain a $200 per hour fee after he left public office.

He is accused of concealing documents from the probate court that would preclude or limit his ability to involve himself in this probate and he did all this prior to his retirement as public administrator.

The Ethics Commission will conduct a hearing on the complaint on March 9 in Las Vegas to determine whether Shafer violated state ethics laws.

Shafer, who served as Clark County's public administrator for more than 23 years before his retirement, could not be reached for comment Monday.

The two-member ethics panel conducted preliminary hearings on the matter last month and on Monday announced "that just and sufficient cause exits" for the full commission to hold a hearing.

Shafer, in answering the complaint at the ethics commission, maintained he left office on Dec. 31, 2002, and he was contacted about the probate matter by his lawyer, Elyse M. Tyrell, on Jan. 2, 2003. He said there was no violation of the law since he was not in office. He said he was unaware of the details of the case prior to leaving public office and he received the customary $200 per hour rate as special administrator of the person's estate.

He said he did not plan on being involved in the estate prior to leaving office. Shafer and Tyrell each deny that Shafer had knowledge of the probate case while in public office.

But the ethics panel of Rick Hsu and Jim Kosinski found that Shafer was actually in office until Jan. 5, 2003. An investigation of records found that Shafer was involved in the probate matter on Jan. 2, 2003.

Initially the ethics panel thought that Shafer had left office at the end of December and therefore there was no violation of ethics. But it then found he had been on the county payroll until Jan. 5, 2003, so it revised its opinion.

Tyrell, the attorney for Shafer, told the ethics panel that she first knew about the probate issue on Jan. 2, 2003. She said she was contacted by the Nursing Home Justice Center on behalf of their client Charles Williams Jr., the dead person's son, regarding the need for a special administrator to investigate the wrongful death action.

Tyrell said Shafer was contacted as a private citizen to serve as co-administrator of the estate because Williams was not a resident of Nevada.