Sign removal probe continues

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 | 8:28 a.m.

A majority of the 48 re-election signs of North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon taken by his challenger's campaign were removed with the permission of homeowners, a police spokesman said.

Police spokesman Tim Bedwell said he's uncertain whether police have found residents who said signs were removed by the Andres Ramirez' campaign without their permission.

"I don't know the answer to that," Bedwell said. "They (detectives) are not releasing anything else until they talk with people. We don't want to put the cart before the horse. We want to do a thorough investigation."

The latest update in the investigation by North Las Vegas Police comes as Montandon said Monday he doesn't want theft charges to be filed in the case. Last week his campaign manager, Steve Wark, said he wanted theft charges filed against those in the Andres Ramirez campaign who took the mayor's signs.

"I just wanted someone to stop stealing my signs," Montandon said of the reason his campaign filed the police report. The mayor said he considers the issue over and added, "We are beyond the signs phase of the campaign."

Although he would not provide any names, Montandon said there are residents who told his campaign that they didn't give permission for his opponent to remove the signs.

Ramirez said the preliminary results of the investigation vindicate his campaign, which he said was slandered by Montandon. He said he's considering a lawsuit.

Ramirez said his campaign is missing 80 signs and questioned whether the mayor's supporters were behind it. He said, however, he has no plans to file a police report. It's a waste of police time and taxpayer dollars to investigate the theft of campaign signs, Ramirez said, saying that Montandon should never have filed the report.

"It was cheap political stance by the mayor to distract voters," Ramirez said.

Wark said the campaign was justified in filing the theft report with police but questioned the Ramirez's veracity in saying his campaign signs were stolen.

"We are just working hard and are not going to play into his game," Wark said.

He dared Ramirez to file a lawsuit, saying, "We would love to talk to him in court."

Ramirez said it's possible that someone who dislikes the mayor or is an overzealous supporter of him might have removed Montandon's signs in a few cases. He also said it couldn't be discounted that Montandon supporters took down signs to make Ramirez look bad.