Grand jury targets bail bondsman, wife of indicted defense attorney

The wife of indicted defense attorney Brian Bloomfield and a local bail bondsman have been informed they are targets of a grand jury investigating the destruction of evidence in the criminal case against Bloomfield.

The veteran lawyer and two others were indicted in December in a scam that provided prostitutes and other defendants with phony certificates of completion for court-ordered counseling and community service.

A former Bloomfield employee has told the grand jury that he helped Bloomfield, his wife Amber McDearmon and bail bondsman Tom Jaskol destroy office records linked to the investigation during a late-night rendezvous following a police raid in April 2010.

At the time, Bloomfield and McDearmon were not married, but were living together. The couple had twins in October, and county records show they were married in January.

McDearmon, 28, has a gross mis­demeanor conviction for conspiracy to commit burglary, and her case is one of those identified in the indictment against Bloomfield as including phony certificates of completion.

Bloomfield, 36, represented Mc­Dearmon, who never showed up for dozens of hours of court-ordered community service, but ended up getting certificates of completion for the hours, according to grand jury transcripts in the case against Bloomfield.

On Aug. 22, 2007, District Judge David Barker sentenced McDearmon to nine months behind bars after she had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary, but he suspended the sentence and placed her on probation for three years. She was discharged from probation on June 17, 2009.

Word that McDearmon may have misled Barker about her community service hours is likely to have an impact on her criminal case. Prosecutors could ask the judge to reconsider her sentence.

In a copy of a Marcum notice obtained by the Las Vegas-Review-Journal, prosecutors told McDearmon they were asking the grand jury to indict her on charges of destruction of evidence, conspiracy, forgery, burglary and offering a false instrument for filing or record.

The crimes occurred from October 2007 through April 2010, the target notice said.

Jaskol, 32, is facing the same possible charges, courthouse sources said.

In April 2010, Jaskol co-owned Downtown Bail Bonds, 608 S. Third St., according to grand jury transcripts. But city of Las Vegas records show the company no longer is in business. Its corporate license has been revoked.

Prosecutors also are looking to charge Bloomfield with the destruction of evidence in an effort to cover up the alleged phony certificates scam, sources said. His lawyer, William Terry, does not comment on criminal cases.

McDearmon and Jaskol were told they had until this past Tuesday to present evidence favorable to them to the grand jury, sources said.

McDearmon's lawyer, Osvaldo Fumo, declined to discuss the investigation, but said, "We're looking forward to defending this case."

Bloomfield, former counseling service owner Steven Brox, 46, and juvenile probation officer Robert Chiodini, 41, were named in a 52-count indictment in December that included charges of forgery, conspiracy to commit a crime and offering a false instrument for filing or record.

No trial date has been set, and all three men have pleaded not guilty.

Police seized the cellphones of the three defendants last month outside the courtroom after they had entered their pleas.

At the center of the destruction of evidence case is Brandon Snowden, a felon and former Bloomfield aide.

Snowden, 28, who was an office runner until he was fired in the middle of the criminal investigation, gave police three bags of documents from case files that he alleges were shredded at Bloomfield's 810 S. Casino Blvd. office in 2010. Bloomfield told Snowden that he and Mc­Dearmon had walked to the law office with Jaskol from the bail bondsman's office to avoid being followed by police, grand jury transcripts show.

A police forensic scientist spent 2½ months assembling -- piece by shredded piece -- a pile of documents that played a role in helping prosecutors obtain the indictment against Bloomfield, Brox and Chiodini.

Snowden, who has convictions for theft and forgery in 2005, currently faces robbery and kidnapping charges.

In his Dec. 20 testimony before the grand jury, Snowden said he turned over the shredded documents of his own volition and police gave him no incentives to cooperate.

At the time of Snowden's testimony, however, a bench warrant had been issued for his arrest for failing to show up for a hearing in his robbery case, court records show.

Police records do not show Snowden in custody.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.