F.R.E.E. International, a human trafficking advocacy group, organized The Big Search where hundreds of volunteers hit the streets with fliers of missing children. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
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Review-Journal reporters Elaine Wilson, Jeff German and Rachel Crosby go over the new developments surrounding Douglas Haig and casino security measures.
A year after Nevada health officials closed a taxpayer-funded home where mentally ill people lived in filthy conditions, a mental health clinic continued placing people there — until reporting by the Las Vegas Review-Journal prompted state regulators to shut it down again this week. The home is owned by Emperatriz “Emper” Ebiya and for years was part of a state program that pays people to house mentally ill clients in their homes. But in December 2016 state officials discovered “deplorable conditions” at her home and shut it down. The squalid conditions at such homes are a widespread problem in Nevada, which has 142 community-based homes for people with mental illness. State officials declined to provide addresses for homes of mentally ill residents. The Review-Journal found and visited six of the homes in Las Vegas. A recent audit uncovered conditions — human feces, broken glass, expired food, filthy mattresses, mildew and rodents — at 37 homes statewide.
Federal prosecutors in Nevada have charged Arizona resident Douglas Haig with conspiracy to manufacture and sell armor-piercing ammunition. According to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Las Vegas, Haig appeared Friday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michelle Burns in Phoenix and was released on bond pending a Feb. 15 status conference there. If convicted, Haig could face up to five years in prison. A criminal complaint filed Friday morning is sealed in Nevada, but it appears in Arizona court records. According to the document, the FBI has determined that “two unfired cartridges bearing Haig’s fingerprints” were found in gunman Stephen Paddock’s suite at Mandalay Bay. At a news conference Friday at his lawyer’s office, Haig said Paddock demonstrated no unusual behavior when he came to Haig’s home in Mesa to purchase approximately 720 rounds of tracer ammunition. “Business records reveal that Haig sold armor piercing ammunition throughout the U.S., including Nevada, Texas, Virginia, Wyoming, and South Carolina,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Cocktail waitresses at the The Mirage, then run by Steve Wynn, were pressured by supervisors to have sex with casino customers dating as far back as 1989 and during that time one server claimed the casino mogul pressured her into having sex, according to a court filing. The claims could have been made public nearly two decades ago, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal decided against publishing the story in 1998. Two of the cocktail servers spoke to RJ reporter Carri Geer. Geer said she remembers then-publisher Sherman Frederick saying the woman should undergo lie detector tests. But after the polygraph results came back, Geer said she was ordered to delete the story she had written. But she saved a printout of the story, the court records from the case, the polygraph results and the $600 bill for the polygraph examinations. “I always wanted to tell these women’s stories. That’s why I saved this file for 20 years.” – Carri Geer
Billionaire Steve Wynn faced allegations of pressuring a waitress into sex about 30 years ago. He allegedly told the woman he had “never had a grandmother before” and wanted “to see how it feels,” according to a court document and interviews with the Review-Journal. Wynn, the CEO of Wynn Resorts, was accused of sexual misconduct with several employees in a Wall Street Journal story published last week. Wynn has denied the allegations in the Journal report. The woman, who is now 75, said her supervisor told her she had to have sex with Wynn to keep her job at the Mirage, according to her account and a sworn statement by Earlene Wiggins. Wynn, 76, has not responded to multiple requests from the Review-Journal for an interview.
Douglas Haig, the man who was identified this week as a “person of interest” in the Las Vegas shooting investigation, said Friday that he does not believe the tracer ammunition he sold to gunman Stephen Paddock was used in the mass shooting. (Ross Leviton/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
North Las Vegas police are investigating a shooting Friday morning that left two people dead.
A 43-year-old woman and a man, whose age is unknown, were shot and killed around 5 a.m. at the Colonial Grand at Desert Vista apartments. Two children who lived with the woman were not at home at the time of the shooting and are both safe, police said. The shooter remained at-large Friday morning. Police said they would release a suspect description later in the day, if available.
Friday’s headlines: Employee shot after altercation outside east Las Vegas market, Las Vegas smoke shop clerk gets probation for fatally shooting boy, 1 dead, 1 injured in North Las Vegas shooting