DA Roger defends actions in three cases

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005 | 9:03 a.m.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger said he believes his office made the right decisions in three high profile cases involving one child's suicide, another child's death from malnourishment and the death of four bus stop pedestrians.

Roger's appearance Wednesday on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston" on Las Vegas ONE occurred shortly after his office charged 35-year-old Geoffrey Wells of Henderson with felony child neglect in connection with the Aug. 26 suicide of his 12-year-old son, Syber.

The father allegedly left a loaded gun unattended in their house and Syber used it to take his life.

Roger told Ralston that state law requires parents to secure firearms in enclosed containers.

"We have taken that statute and that thought process and concluded that it is abuse or neglect when parents leave their guns unattended," Roger said.

His office filed similar charges on two separate occasions last year, but in both cases the charges were negotiated down to misdemeanors. Whether that will occur in the Wells case is too early to determine, Roger said.

"We have to look at these cases on a case by case basis," he said. "We start with the abuse and neglect charge and fashion remedies that fit the facts of the case and the particular individuals.

"These are always tragic cases. These parents don't intend for other people to be hurt. I'm sure that this father is devastated that his son committed suicide, but nevertheless he violated the law."

Because the father had been warned in a child custody hearing by a Family Court judge to secure his firearms, the fact he allegedly violated that order could play a role in his punishment, Roger said.

He was also asked by Ralston to address the June 29 death of 2-year-old Adacelli Snyder from malnourishment and neglect a year after the county Department of Family Services closed a Child Protective Services investigation of her family.

The Las Vegas Sun sued the county for access to her social service records. Last Friday District Judge Stewart Bell rejected that request, citing a state law that he said protected the privacy of the family.

Roger's office, which represents the Family Services Department, had argued that the case file should remain private.

The Sun, which was joined in the suit by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and KLAS Channel 8, is preparing to appeal that ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court, arguing that there is good cause to release the records so that the public can understand how its government operates.

Later that day, Roger's office asked District Court to determine whether the state law should be superseded by a federal law that requires child protection records to be disclosed in cases in which child abuse or neglect resulted in a child's death or near death.

Ralston reminded Roger that Clark County Manager Thom Reilly has said he thinks such records should be disclosed.

"Thom Reilly and I are on the same page," Roger said. "We both believe in open government."

Roger said state law prohibits records involving child abuse or neglect to be disclosed "to protect children from ridicule somewhere down the road."

"We concluded that the statute was pretty clear, and I think that Judge Bell agreed that only certain matters or documents could be turned over," Roger said. "With due respect to Thom Reilly, we are the lawyers who represent Child Protective Services. We have to make sure that they don't violate the law."

But Roger said his office would like Nevada courts to determine whether the federal law should take precedent.

"There is a federal statute that provides that if you receive federal grant money, which the state does, then you have to have a policy that allows opening of public records," he said. "So we have petitioned the court to see which law governs. Is it our state law that says the public should not have access, or is it the federal law that says we do?"

The case of Veronica Schmidt was another matter entirely. Schmidt, who killed four pedestrians at a Las Vegas bus stop on March 14 with her vehicle, was found to have the prescription drug Xanax in her bloodstream.

At least one expert has said she had a high amount of the anti-depressant in her system at the time of the crash, and the Las Vegas city attorney's office has filed misdemeanor charges against her.

But Roger said his office is standing by its decision not to prosecute her based on its belief that she did not have an elevated level of Xanax in her system.

That decision, he said, was based on the opinion of a Metro detective who observed her a half-hour after the crash, a district attorney's office criminologist who tested her blood samples, and deputy district attorneys who reviewed her case.

He said two prosecutors in the Nevada attorney general's office also thought there wasn't enough evidence to proceed with charges against her for driving under the influence.

"Our vehicular crime unit deputies, who handle nothing but these types of cases, worked alongside with the Metro detectives, reviewed the case and they concluded that we could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt and that's our standard. That's our ethical obligation.

"I know that the public feels that there are four dead bodies and someone's got to pay, but our obligation is to review the facts and apply it to the law, and we didn't think we could prove the case."

I'm sure that this father is devastated that his son committed suicide, but nevertheless he violated the law.

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