Boulder City police chief alleges conspiracy to drive him out of job

Boulder City Police Chief Thomas Finn on Wednesday sued city officials and some of his own officers, accusing them of conspiring to ruin his reputation and drive him out of office.

The lawsuit names City Attorney Dave Olsen, Councilman Cam Walker, police Sgt. John Chase, retired Sgt. Dan Jennings and Stephen Stubbs, an attorney for the Mongols Motorcycle Club.

In court papers, Finn said the group's goal is to replace him with Chase.

The lawsuit alleges the defendants "have acted in concert to inflict damage upon Finn's reputation, thereby creating a situation whereby the city manager would be either forced to place Finn on administrative leave or dismiss Finn from his position, then replacing Finn with Chase."

The lawsuit also alleges the defendants' actions have so damaged Finn's reputation that it is unlikely he could again be employed as a police chief. Finn, represented by Las Vegas attorney Sean Flanagan, seeks unspecified damages.

Olsen said he had not yet seen the lawsuit but said Finn had created the conspiracy theory out of "virtually nothing."

"I do believe Stephen Stubbs has very strong feelings about the chief," Olsen said. "But all those other names you gave me I have never heard them say, 'Hey, the chief needs to go.' "

Finn's allegations center on Stubbs' efforts to have Finn investigated over the deletion of department emails before a Mongols visit in June .

Finn, who has been the Boulder City chief since 2006, said the circumstances surrounding the email allegation make it impossible to continue in his job.

"It's really just destroyed my career," Finn said. "I was planning on staying here another three to five years, but it's quite obvious I'll be gone."

Olsen is scheduled to present an opinion to the City Council Nov. 27 about whether Finn broke any laws when he ordered his officers to delete emails related to the Mongols gathering.

Olsen said this week he was "leaning in the direction that there has been a violation of a couple of statutes."

Also at Tuesday's meeting, the council is to receive an opinion from an outside attorney hired to advise if the council should ask the state attorney general to investigate.

In June, about 300 Mongols held a convention Boulder City, an event met by a heavy police presence in the town of 15,000.

The club has a history of clashing with Hells Angels members in Southern Nevada, but the weekend passed with no significant problems.

On June 11, more than a week before the Mongols gathering, Finn sent an email to 29 police officers, City Manager Vicki Mayes and Fire Chief Kevin Nicholson. In the email he wrote that Lt. Vince Albowicz had made the "excellent suggestion" to delete emails related to law enforcement's preparation for the Mongols event.

"If (the Mongols) submit a records request for them it would obviously show our hand and divulge the strategies and staffing levels we need to keep confidential. Therefore, please delete any and all emails related to the event immediately," Finn wrote.

Finn has said his email was "poorly worded," but no laws were broken because no one took his advice. He said he also knew that copies of any deleted emails would be kept by the city in any event. Finn also said he was concerned that someone within the department was leaking information to Stubbs, the Mongols' attorney.

"Yes there are state statues preventing the destruction of records, but they were not being destroyed, I just wanted the officers to think they were not available," he said.

No confidential information was ever obtained by the Mongols before the June event, but Stubbs was tipped to Finn's deletion order. Stubbs in October asked Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson to investigate.