Warrant issued for ex-Vegas Constable John Bonaventura

Former Las Vegas Constable John Bonaventura may out of his now non-existent office, but his troubles are far from over.

On Monday, Judge pro-tem Jeannie Hua issued a warrant for his arrest, Clark County court records show.

Bonaventura is accused of domestic battery and coercion against his wife stemming from an incident on April 17, according to the criminal complaint.

The complaint, which was filed May 7, accuses the former constable of grabbing and pulling his wife violently by the arms and forcing her to write him a check for $9,500.

The police report for the April 17 incident was not available to the public Thursday as it was filed under seal. It will made public after Bonaventura has been officially charged.

Both charges against Bonaventura are misdemeanors. Both can carry punishments of up to six months in jail and a fine of $1,000.

The warrant is just the most recent problem to plague Bonaventura.

After numerous issues and complaints against Bonaventura and his office, the Clark County Commission unanimously voted in March 2013 to abolish it altogether.

Even after the abolishment was announced, Bonaventura and his office continued to make waves with controversy.

In January 2014, Bonaventura and the constable’s office settled a lawsuit with two former employees who accused Bonaventura of ordering them to lie in front of the County Commission and were then demoted when they refused. That lawsuit was settled for $415,000.

In June, taped conversations involving Bonaventura surfaced, once again putting the departing constable at the forefront of headlines

In one of the recordings, Bonaventura was heard saying he wanted to bleed the office dry of all its assets before it was abolished. Plus he had message for Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak.

“Right now, with everything going on, I want to spend all the money,” Bonaventura is heard saying. “You know, we’ve got $3.9 million in there. I wish I could just spend it all and then if they did eliminate the office say, ‘F—- you Sisolak, you got nothing. What happened to the money … you’re trying to get the money and guess what, what do you got? You get nothing.’ I wish I could do that somehow but you can’t spend that much money.”

Two other former employees in July accused the former constable of forcing them to give thousands of dollars worth of kick-back payments to Bonaventura.

The office was officially abolished when Bonaventura’s term expired in January. Duties of the constable’s office — such as handling evictions and serving court papers — were absorbed by Metro.

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