Prostitutes heard Lamar Odom ‘snorting’ in brothel bathroom, court papers show

A Nye County brothel owner who distanced his business from allegations of drug use after Lamar Odom was found unconscious Oct. 13 following a four-day bender has changed his perspective, slightly, after court documents told a different story.

Dennis Hof initially said members of his staff were aware Odom had done cocaine the day he arrived at the Love Ranch in Crystal, about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas. None, he said, had seen him take illegal drugs at the brothel, though.

But two women Odom spent nearly three days with on his reportedly $75,000 stay told detectives they thought the ex-NBA star was using cocaine in the bathroom that adjoined the suite where he was staying, a Nye County sheriff's detective told a judge.

"They indicated that they heard him snorting," Detective Michael Eisenloffel told the judge in a phone call hours after Odom was found. Eisenloffel was requesting a search warrant to test Odom's blood.

Beatty Justice Court on Friday provided the Review-Journal a transcript of the detective's call.

Eisenloffel told the judge that the description given by the prostitutes of the unconscious Odom, with a white substance coming from his mouth and blood from his nose, are common signs of a drug overdose, in his opinion.

Waiting for a conclusion

But it wasn't just Odom's condition Oct. 13 that lead police to suspect illegal drug usage.

Eisenloffel said Odom was seen by eyewitnesses and on surveillance footage ingesting a pill taken from an unmarked plastic bag. The detective said police did not know what the substance was.

The detective also told the judge that he spoke to Odom's personal assistant, who told them that he had seen Odom under the influence of drugs in the past.

By Friday, Hof suggested things seemed less clear.

If his prostitutes suspected drugs, he said, they should have told him, not just police.

"I really want to know what's going on here," he said.

Both women who spent time with Odom have been suspended, Hof said.

If the results of the toxicology test come back positive for illegal drugs such as cocaine, the license for Hof's brothel could be in jeopardy. It could take weeks for final results to be returned.

Nevada, the only state with legalized prostitution, leaves the regulations up to counties. Selling sex in Clark County is illegal.

The board that regulates and licenses brothels in Nye County is made up of the five county commissioners, including Frank Carbone, and Sheriff Sharon Wehrly. Board members can call for a hearing to consider revoking a license if they think a law or county ordinances has been violated.

But in the case of Odom's and the Love Ranch, it all depends on the results of the criminal investigation, commissioner Frank Carbone told the Review-Journal on Friday.

"Can't do anything until you have information," Carbone said. "[Hof] could have done nothing wrong. We definitely have to wait for the investigation to be over."

None of the other members of the licensing board returned calls Friday for comment.

Problems in the past

Broken laws don't automatically mean a brothel owner gets in trouble.

Consider the man from whom Hof bought two of his Nye County brothels: Maynard "Joe" Richards.

Richards was indicted in 2006 on two felony counts of federal wire fraud after he paid then-County Commissioner Candice Trummell $5,000 to rewrite an ordinance that had kept him from building a new house of prostitution at the south end of Pahrump.

Trummell was working undercover for the FBI, and the meetings and phone conversations she secretly recorded made the government's case against the brothel owner. Richards pleaded guilty to one of the charges in a deal that spared him from prison in March 2009.

The commissioners could have moved to take Richards' brothel license. Instead they allowed him to renew it, and he eventually sold out to Hof.

Hof renamed the Cherry Patch Ranch as the Love Ranch.

Odom, 35, spent nearly a week recovering at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. Media and tabloids keeping watch outside the Las Vegas hospital kept the story in the news, even with little information coming from official sources. Odom was released Monday.

He had at least one previous stent in rehab before.

The New York native rose to fame as part of the 2009 and 2010 NBA Championship Los Angeles Lakers. He also was married to Khloe Kardashian, who filed for divorce in 2013. The divorce is not finalized. The couple were featured with the rest of the family on the E! show "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" plus their own spin off, "Khloe & Lamar."

Contact reporter Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Find him on Twitter: @ColtonLochhead