Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
Assemblyman Steven Brooks makes his introduction during a meeting of the Health and Human Services Committee before departing for the remainder of the meeting on the third day of the 2013 legislative session Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 in Carson City.
Thursday, May 30, 2013 | 11:48 a.m.
CARSON CITY — An investigation that led to the unprecedented ouster of former Nevada Assemblyman Steven Brooks earlier this year cost Nevada taxpayers nearly $95,000, more than twice initial estimates.
Documents from the Legislative Counsel Bureau show the state owes $66,715 to a Las Vegas-based attorney with the Greenberg Traurig law firm, and paid $27,793 to Reno investigative firm The Advantage Group.
The total is more than double the $45,000 state officials earlier estimated it would cost to determine the rationale and ramifications of kicking Brooks out.
Brooks' expulsion, which was the first ever for a Nevada state lawmaker, took place March 28. Lawmakers cited investigators' 900-page report on Brooks as evidence that he was unfit to serve his constituents.
Some said they felt unsafe with Brooks in the legislative building after his months-long streak of bizarre behavior that included arrests, paranoid statements and posing shirtless for a newspaper article.
Just hours after the emotional expulsion vote, the 41-year-old representative from North Las Vegas was arrested in a police chase and confrontation along Interstate 15 in Victorville, Calif.
Brooks remains in a jail in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and is scheduled to appear in court Friday. He has pleaded not guilty to resisting an officer, felony evading and assault on a police animal, charges filed after his California arrest.
Earlier this month, Brooks was denied enrollment in a mental health court program, which could have allowed him out of jail and held him accountable for keeping on track with mental health treatments.
San Bernardino County prosecutors argued against putting him on probation.
Meanwhile, Brooks faces other cases in Nevada.
He was indicted last month on a felony charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. That charge, which stems from a January arrest in North Las Vegas after he purportedly voiced threats against a fellow legislator, alleges Brooks shouldn't have had a gun because he was an unlawful marijuana user.
He also was charged with a felony and three lesser counts in a Feb. 10 arrest that came as police responded to a domestic disturbance involving his estranged wife.
Brooks' lawyer, Mitchell Posin, said the California case needs to be processed before the Nevada cases can move forward.
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