Krolicki investigator taken off the case

By Jeff German (contact)

Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Department of Public Safety

Jerry Hafen, director of the Nevada Department of Public Safety

Just a few days after taking over the Nevada Public Safety Department, Jerry Hafen is questioning the department’s role in the 11-month-old criminal investigation of Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki.

In one of his first official acts as director Friday, Hafen placed the investigator overseeing the Krolicki probe on paid administrative leave.

Hafen relieved Lt. John Drew of his duties at the Nevada Division of Investigations pending the outcome of a separate probe into the disappearance of large quantities of drugs and guns from a state evidence vault Drew oversaw in Fallon. Hafen also put on paid leave an unidentified sergeant who had been under Drew’s command in Fallon.

Drew was working with the Nevada attorney general’s office on the Krolicki investigation while he and the sergeant faced scrutiny in a new attorney general’s probe into missing evidence from the Fallon vault, which is used by several Public Safety Department agencies, including the Investigations Division and the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Hafen declined to comment on the personnel matters, and Drew could not be reached for comment.

Hafen said he wants to meet with Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto this week to discuss why the Investigations Division was brought into the Krolicki case. The investigation is aimed at determining whether Krolicki ordered state treasurer’s records purged in late 2006. At the time Krolicki, a Republican, had just been elected lieutenant governor.

“We’re not stopping or slowing down the (Krolicki) investigation,” Hafen said Monday. “But I have some concerns about how we got there, and I’m sure the attorney general can explain to me how we got there.”

Because the Public Safety Department falls under the executive branch and the lieutenant governor is in its chain of command, Hafen said he is concerned there will be allegations of whitewashing if charges are ultimately not pursued against Krolicki.

“The attorney general is supposed to take the lead in these kinds of investigations,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re on solid footing before we proceed further with this case.”

Cortez Masto has her own criminal investigators, who can be called on in a sensitive case such as this, he said.

Treasurer Kate Marshall asked Cortez Masto, her fellow Democrat, to launch the investigation in March after complaining her efforts to resolve discrepancies in the $3.3 billion Nevada College Savings Plan were being hampered by a “lack of historical information and documents” left by Krolicki.

Cortez Masto asked Hafen’s predecessor, Phil Galeoto, in April to assign the Investigations Division to the case.

The attorney general’s office and the division have refused to publicly discuss the investigation since. Nicole Moon, a spokeswoman for Cortez Masto, could not be reached for comment Monday.

In December, Marshall said she had received no word on the status of the probe, but Investigations Division agents had conducted a second round of interviews with current and former office employees a couple of weeks earlier.

Krolicki, who was interviewed by state agents earlier in the investigation, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said no records were improperly destroyed.

Hafen said he doesn’t know why the Krolicki investigation has taken so long and planned to get a briefing from the team of investigators on the case this week. He said there was no one left in the office who could explain the reasoning behind involving the Investigations Division in the Krolicki case. Galeoto left last week.

Gov. Jim Gibbons appointed Hafen as Galeoto’s replacement Thursday.

Drew’s conduct in the Krolicki investigation was not a factor in Hafen’s decision to put him on paid administrative leave, Public Safety Department sources said.

The action was part of Hafen’s efforts to clean up a mess within the department left by Galeoto.

In the weeks before he resigned, Galeoto had been accused of mishandling an internal investigation into the missing evidence at the Fallon vault. Large amounts of methamphetamine and other drugs and as many as 90 guns were reported missing, sources within the department told the Sun.

In the middle of the inquiry, Galeoto promoted Drew, whose duties included overseeing the vault, to acting chief of the Investigations Division.

Galeoto also publicly insisted he had not found any criminal wrongdoing, yet he asked the attorney general’s office to look into possible criminal violations.

A few days before he announced his resignation, Galeoto moved Drew back to his lieutenant’s position.

Hafen, a veteran of 32 years in law enforcement, said Monday that, based upon his initial review of Galeoto’s internal probe, he does not see any theft or criminal behavior related to the missing evidence.

Evidence from ongoing criminal cases is not missing, he added.

“We’re looking at evidence that was no longer needed and supposed to be destroyed,” he said. “We have items that aren’t properly accounted for, and that’s a very serious problem for us.”

Jeff German is the Sun’s senior investigative reporter.