Lawsuit alleges top authorities had responsibility in scandal

Stephen Curran

Thursday, Jan. 27, 2005 | 9:36 a.m.

The woman at the center of a sex scandal that brought down a former district attorney's office investigator filed a lawsuit this week alleging that a number of high-profile government officials let the abuse happen.

It was Love Holloway's initial allegations that Pete Baldonado forced her to perform various sexual acts in exchange for "fixing" a number of warrants that spurred the investigation and subsequent conviction of the investigator. In her lawsuit, Holloway alleges that Clark County District Attorney David Roger, Sheriff Bill Young and Judge Stewart Bell knew of previous complaints against Baldonado.

Holloway's lawsuit, filed by Las Vegas lawyer Richard Harris in Clark County District Court this week, alleges Roger, Young and then-District Attorney Bell knew of similar complaints by other black women as far back as 2001.

That year, "(Roger, Young and Bell) were made aware of complaints and allegations of extortion or sexual favors from African-American females in return for ostensibly quashing subpoenas and/or 'fixing' warrants," the suit alleges.

But a failure on the part of staff members to adequately investigate the claims against the longtime county employee who worked his way up from bailiff to eventually become chief investigator may have allowed an undetermined number of other women to be assaulted, Harris said.

"There were complaints going back to 2001 about the fact that this gentleman (Baldonado) may have been assaulting other women in response for quashing warrants," Harris said. "It (his contact with Holloway and other possible victims) started off legitimate and he used their cases to phony up subpoenas and further contact his victims."

Baldonado's plea agreement stemmed from a November 2003 encounter with Holloway, who at the time was to testify in the murder trial of Kenneth Curtis. Curtis was accused in the 1997 murder of his former girlfriend's sister. During that meeting at Holloway's home, which the investigator said he scheduled to discuss her testimony, Baldonado forced her to have sex.

He was arrested in a joint FBI sting operation and sentenced in June to two to five years in June after pleading the equivalent of no-contest in April to one count of coercion and another for misconduct for abusing his position.

Young, when told of the lawsuit by a Sun reporter, said he had "never heard of" Holloway and defended his department's role in Baldanado case.

"That invididual was not my employee and I did not have anything to do with it other than my department investigated (the claims) and did a good job," the sheriff said. "He (Baldonado) is not my employee. I don't know him and I don't care to know him."

Harris, however, said Metro was particularly slow to react before the FBI's involvement.

"It took the FBI to get involved in this before this guy (Baldonado) was finally busted," Harris said. "He was slipping through because the local authorities weren't giving him the attention he had deserved."

The suit also names Clark County and the city of North Las Vegas as defendants, alleging that the governments had pertinent information about Baldonado's prior alleged misconduct but showed "deliberate indifference" to it, Harris said.

Former district attorney Bell was elected to the District Court bench in November 2002 and was sworn in as a judge in January 2003. Bell said Baldonado, one of roughly 25 investigators who worked for Bell when he was district attorney, had a good reputation because he was thorough and was considered a veteran at his job.

"Pete (Baldonado) was there for years before I got there," Bell said. "He was an employee along with many others when I got there. There's of course no excuse for this type of alleged conduct but in doing his investigative duties he was quite good."

Given the scope of the allegations against Baldonado, Bell said he was not surprised to be named in the lawsuit, as bosses or employers are frequently named in suits alleging employee misconduct.

During his tenure as district attorney, Bell estimated he "probably got sued twice a week" and that the claims rarely had merit.

Roger would not comment on the ongoing lawsuit.

Holloway is seeking unspecified damages from the defendants, saying their alleged inaction caused her physical injury, pain, distress and anguish.