Bail bondsman wants to be sheriff

A Las Vegas bail bondsman who spent more than a year in jail for his part in a plot to hire a hit man to kill a former employee wants to be Clark County's next sheriff.

Tim Deam, 47, filed Tuesday to run against Sheriff Doug Gillespie, who has filed for re-election.

Daniel Barry, Laurie P. Bisch, Gordon Martines and Mark F. Beckerle also have filed as challengers.

In 2006, Deam was arrested in a murder-for-hire plot targeting Robert Suckoll. The two men had been battling in court over ownership of the Dirty Deeds Bail Bonds. Deam was charged with one count of soliciting murder.

According to court records, Deam pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a crime and to battery with substantial bodily harm, both gross misdemeanors, on Dec. 10, 2007. He was sentenced to the 15 months, given credit for the time he'd already spent in county jail and released.

But Deam says he served time for crimes he did not commit.

"That whole thing was fabricated," he said. "They used ex-employees against me."

He now claims he was set up for trying to prove that District Attorney David Roger accepted bribes from the mob, and that powerful people, including Gillespie, wanted to punish him.

Deam and Suckoll first appeared in the public spotlight in 2005. Suckoll and two other men were arrested in El Salvador and charged with kidnapping when they tried to bring a bail jumper back to Las Vegas to face child molestation charges.

The rift between Deam and Suckoll surfaced about that time. Deam accused Suckoll of embezzling at least $20,000 from the bail bond company. Suckoll sued Deam for illegally kicking him out of the company and not doing enough to get him home from El Salvador.

Police said Deam arranged a hit in hopes of avoiding a court hearing in which Suckoll was trying to prevent him from selling the company's phone number. Deam gave the hit man the addresses and gate codes for Suckoll's two homes but warned him not to do anything close to the homes because then-North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon was a neighbor, according to police.

But Deam said he played along with the plot because he thought Suckoll was trying to sabotage his business. Suckoll denied the allegations of a set-up.

"I've always been a man of integrity, that's something that's lacking in Metro right now," Deam said. "There's a lot of good officers out there, but their reputation has been tarnished by shootings, a lack of discipline and traffic accidents. Gillespie acts like he's going to implement things, like he didn't look at this until now. They don't do anything until they're caught with their pants down."

Deam, who now owns the Bail King bond company, said he served in the Marine Corps as a military police officer from 1981 to 1989 and worked his way up from a basic patrolman to the presidential protection team for President Ronald Reagan.

Deam said he wants police officers to know the first names of people on their beats.

"There is no longer a public servant," he said. "When you get pulled over by a cop they're like the Gestapo, they're very insensitive. They have no remorse for victims, they treat them like another suspect. They work for the public, but that's something that's been forgotten."

Contact Kristi Jourdan at kjourdan@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.