Last charge dropped in sex slave case against ex-GOP consultant
Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped the last remaining criminal charge against a former Las Vegas-based Republican consultant accused of sexually enslaving and assaulting his former fiancee.
A lawyer for Benjamin Sparks said after a brief court hearing that the woman had concocted the allegations and lied to authorities when she said he physically abused her and prevented her from leaving her apartment.
“It’s a complete fabrication, and we can prove it’s a complete fabrication,” Josh Tomsheck said. “Once she became aware we had the evidence in the case, she stopped showing up to court.”
The decision came three months after prosecutors dismissed more serious charges against Sparks.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Steven Rose said the woman had developed an illness that prevented her from testifying at a misdemeanor battery trial for the next several weeks or even months.
“She indicated to me that because of a medical condition, she would not be able to testify for a relatively lengthy period of time,” Rose said, adding that the woman knew charges against Sparks would be thrown out. He declined to elaborate on her condition.
In October, the prosecutor dismissed five felony counts, including kidnapping, against Sparks.
After Tuesday’s hearing, Sparks said the charges caused “irreparable harm to personal friendships” and his career.
“She tried to wield the justice system as a club,” he said. “She used it as a tool. She threatened to do this to me the entire time we were together. … Justice was served today, as I always knew it would be. I hope the press spends half the time reporting the facts as they did hurting my reputation.”
Sparks, who worked on an unsuccessful campaign for former U.S. Rep. Cresent Hardy of Nevada, was fired in early 2018 from his job as political affairs director for RedRock Strategies, a prominent GOP consulting firm. He worked on high-profile congressional campaigns, including that of New Mexico lawmaker Yvette Herrell, and national races, including Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and the anti-recall campaign of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in 2012.
Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.