North Las Vegas foster parent faces more abuse allegations

Marvie Hill, the foster parent North Las Vegas police accuse of abusing more than one child in his care, is expected to surrender to authorities today.

Hill went to North Las Vegas Justice Court on Thursday with his attorney, Bret Whipple, and was arraigned by Chief Judge Natalie Tyrrell on 20 counts of open and gross lewdness; five counts of lewdness with a minor under 14; one count of sexual assault, victim under 14; and one count of child abuse. The felony charges involve two victims.

Police said Hill will go through a "walk-through" booking, where he will be fingerprinted, booked and released on his own recognizance. He already has posted a $40,000 bond.

Calls to Whipple were not returned Thursday.

Police said that on Aug. 21, a 19-year-old man told detectives that when he was in Hill's custody as a 15-year-old in 2008, he was abused by Hill several times. Hill, 37, was arrested July 21 on similar allegations involving a second victim but was released by a judge because of a paperwork issue.

Additional complaints about Hill have been made to police, and they involve male foster children who were placed in his care. Police said another possible victim has come forward, bringing the total to three.

Terri March, North Las Vegas Justice Court administrator, said Hill supporters crowded into the courtroom Thursday, and an arrest warrant issued for Hill was quashed.

The Clark County Department of Family Services suspended Hill's license and removed all children from his home.

Hill filed a District Court lawsuit last year against Family Services for restricting his foster care license with the intent to revoke it after more than a dozen complaints about his care.

According to a July 29, 2011, letter from the department to Hill, the complaints involved allegations of physical abuse, threats of harm, sexual abuse and neglect and a lack of supervision from 2006 to 2011.

Hill's lawsuit is pending and argues that between investigators concluding misconduct had not occurred in each complaint filed against him and having his foster care home pass annual inspections, his license should be left alone.

Hill serves as president of Unity Family Services, Inc., a mental health and behavioral treatment foster care agency, according to the Nevada secretary of state website.

According to the company's website, the group deals with the "placement of children whose intensive individual needs cannot be met through regular foster care."

Hill also was president of United Family Transitional Homes, a nonprofit that ran a group halfway home for sex offenders. The home, which was at 3009 Colton Ave., near Cheyenne Avenue and Simmons Street in North Las Vegas, opened in 2005 and closed two years later. It housed up to eight sex offenders who had been imprisoned on a variety of charges, including statutory sexual seduction and sexual assault on a victim under 16.

Complaints from neighbors and city officials prompted the state Division of Parole and Probation to move the offenders, and North Las Vegas officials tightened restrictions for halfway homes and business licenses.

Detectives are seeking those who were in Hill's care as children, "whether they were victims or have knowledge that could aid" in the investigation.

Anyone with information regarding the case is urged to call the North Las Vegas Police Department at 702-633-9111 or Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.

Contact reporter Kristi Jourdan at kjourdan@review
journal.com or 383-0440.