Council hopeful arrested in ’98

Las Vegas City Council Ward 5 candidate Ricki Barlow was arrested on domestic violence charges in 1998 after his wife said he slapped her in the face as she tried to move out of the couple's home.

Charges against Barlow were dismissed as part of a plea deal that year in Las Vegas Justice Court. Barlow agreed to forfeit $250 in bail, do community service and get counseling, his attorney said Thursday.

Barlow denied any wrongdoing.

"I have never touched a woman, and I never will. I respect women too much," he said. "During my divorce, there was a heated argument, and allegations were made. The judge looked at the allegations, and he dismissed the allegations."

Barlow referred additional questions to his attorney.

According to the police report, on May 24, 1998, officers responded to a residence on the 4200 block of South Pecos Road.

Barlow's wife at the time, Vanessa Garbutt-Barlow, told police that she was moving out when her husband came home. "He got upset, jumped on top of her while she was sitting on the couch and began slapping her," she told police, according to the incident report. "The victim also stated that the suspect grabbed her and ripped her shirt."

Garbutt-Barlow obtained a temporary protective order on May 24, 1998, according to court records. The order, which barred Barlow from being within 1,000 feet of Garbutt-Barlow, later was extended to Aug. 28, 1998.

The domestic violence allegation and protective order came during proceedings in the couple's divorce, which was finalized in 2001.

Barlow's attorney, Chip Siegel, said that his client's agreeing to do community service and receive counseling should not be taken as an admission of guilt.

"The bottom line is the case was dismissed," Siegel said.

Barlow had to take an eight-hour class on impulse control, Siegel said.

Barlow, who is on leave as a City Council liaison, will face off with attorney Stacie Truesdell in a June 5 runoff. Liaisons are aides to members of the City Council.

Out of the primary field of 10 candidates, Barlow got 43 percent of the vote, and Truesdell received the second-largest number of votes, 29 percent. Because no candidate got more than 50 percent of the vote, they will square off on June 5.

Barlow had come out of the primary with momentum, garnering the endorsement of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association and the Culinary union.

But Truesdell's campaign has sought to derail his candidacy by questioning Barlow's residency status.

Barlow was appointed to the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District Board of Trustees in 2000.

Despite city code requiring that appointees to the library board live within Las Vegas city limits, the address Barlow submitted was in an unincorporated area of Clark County.

"We should've checked that, and we didn't," said Beverly Bridges, acting Las Vegas city clerk.

He was reappointed in 2003 and at that time submitted a Las Vegas address on Hart Street, in Ward 5. But Barlow acknowledged that he did not live in the city.

He said in an interview Thursday that the Hart Street address was his brother's residence, which he used for library board correspondence because the agenda packets would not fit in his mailbox.

He said he was unaware until recently of the city's residency requirement for serving as the city's representative on the library board.

"It was never brought to my attention," he said. "I was asked to serve, and I took it as an honor to serve on behalf of the city and the library district."

Barlow became chairman of the library board and was named trustee of the year for the Nevada Library Association in 2003.

Barlow said the attacks are a "desperate approach by my opponent to run a very negative smear campaign."

Beatrice Turner, a West Las Vegas community activist, called a news conference for today at 10 a.m. to talk about the domestic violence incident. She brought up the case against Barlow at Wednesday's City Council meeting.

Jim Ferrence, Barlow's political consultant, said: "Stacie Truesdell's attack dogs are substituting 10-year-old overblown charges for substantive issues," he said. "Beatrice Turner, Gene Collins, these people don't do anything without a paycheck."

Collins ran for the Ward 5 seat in the primary and had questioned Barlow's residency throughout the campaign.

Truesdell said the allegations of domestic violence were "disturbing and unfortunate."

She denied that she was paying Turner.