Las Vegas police suspect trip, contract linked

Former University Medical Center chief Lacy L. Thomas is accused of receiving a trip to Aruba and $14,000 for steering a lucrative contract to "very close friends in Chicago," said a source close to the investigation of the ousted hospital chief.

Las Vegas police uncovered the link during a nine-month investigation into whether Thomas took kickbacks from associates and friends in the Windy City for giving them no-work contracts with the financially strapped hospital.

Detectives handed their case, detailed in a 60-page report, to the district attorney's office Thursday with recommendations to charge Thomas, Orlando Jones and Martello Pollock, said Deputy Chief Kathy Suey of the Homeland Security Division. The division includes the Criminal Intelligence Section, which conducted the investigation.

Among the recommended charges were misconduct by a public official, bribery, fraud and theft, the source said.

Prosecutors will review the case before taking the next step, which includes filing charges, asking for more investigation or calling a grand jury. District Attorney David Roger said a decision will not be made for several weeks.

Police had been investigating Thomas since November after a Clark County audit found massive financial losses at county-owned UMC and questionable contracts with Chicago-based companies during Thomas' three-year reign.

The contract at the center of the current case involved Crystal Communications Telephone Corp., a Chicago-based telecommunications company founded by Pollock in 1999.

The company worked at Chicago's John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County when Thomas ran it, and Pollock attended Thomas' alma mater, Chicago State University, according to a search warrant affidavit released in January.

Jones was a corporate officer for Crystal Communications and had a history of personal business with Thomas, the source said.

Jones is the godson of Stroger, a Cook County commissioner for more than 35 years, the Chicago Sun-Times said.

Crystal Communications received a $24,000 consulting contract with UMC shortly after Thomas was hired in 2003, and the company was set to receive a $150,000 no-bid contract before county Finance Director George Stevens demanded open bidding, the source said.

Crystal Communications bid more than $132,000 for the project involving hospital telecommunications. A Nevada company's bid came in nearly $36,000 less, but Crystal Communications still won the contract, according to the affidavit.

Hospital officials told detectives the company did little or no work, the document said.

When investigators scrutinized the March 2005 Aruba trip for Thomas and his wife, Henrene Thomas, they discovered Jones had paid for the trip, the source said.

Soon after the trip, a company Jones lobbied for, Family Guidance Centers, deposited $14,000 into a bank account for HT LLC, a company set up by Henrene Thomas, the source said.

Phone messages left last week at offices of Jones and Pollock went unreturned, as did a message left for Thomas at his house.

Clark County Manager Virginia Valentine fired Thomas in January on the same day detectives raided the hospital offices and seized file boxes and computers. Valentine said Thomas misled county commissioners, telling them the hospital would lose $18.8 million for the year when the loss topped $34 million.

Valentine declined to discuss the case last week and said she wants to protect the integrity of the investigation.

"I think this case needs to be adjudicated one way or another so we can move on," she said.

Review-Journal reporter Adrienne Packer contributed to this report.