Nye County official resigns after robbery

Nye County's elected public administrator resigned from office Sunday, just hours after he was tied up and robbed at gunpoint by assailants who targeted him because they knew he handled valuables as part of his job.

Robert Jones was due to leave office on Jan. 3, but he decided to step down early after what authorities are calling a home invasion at his Pahrump residence.

"After Saturday night, I don't want to do this anymore," Jones said Monday from the house that doubled as his office. "I don't want this stuff in my home."

Sheriff Tony DeMeo said four to six people, at least two of them with firearms, forced their way into Jones' house about 9 p.m. Saturday and tied him up in front of his wife and 7-year-old child.

The assailants apparently knew who Jones was and referenced his job while robbing him, DeMeo said.

"This was not a random act," the sheriff said.

They forced Jones and his wife to open several safes in the house that contained property secured while administering the estates of people who died without leaving a will or next of kin. DeMeo said it is not unusual for public administrators in rural counties to keep their overhead low by working out of their homes.

The elected position does not come with an office or salary. Public administrators collect a percentage of the estates they settle, assuming there are any assets.

DeMeo said Jones was "banged up a little bit" when he tried to fight off the suspects. The public administrator tendered his resignation the next day.

The Nye County Commission had an emergency meeting Monday to appoint a replacement for Jones, who opted not to seek a second 4-year term earlier this year. The job is in the hands of Falkon Finlinson, who was elected in November to become the next public administrator and had already begun serving as Jones' deputy to learn more about the job.

Jones said his family's safety is far more important than serving out the last three weeks of his term.

"They were terrorized here for a half an hour," he said of his wife and child.

As of Monday afternoon, no arrests had been made in the home invasion.

DeMeo said Jones did not recognize any of the people who robbed him, but the group included both men and women, all of them dressed in black with ski masks over their faces.

Jones said he was in another room when the suspects forced their way into the house. He hit one with a pool cue before he was wrestled to the ground and tied up, he said.

The assailants didn't call each other by name, Jones said. Instead they used the numbers one through four and kept referring to two other people -- five and six -- who were waiting outside.

Jones was still conducting an inventory late Monday afternoon to figure out what was stolen. They mostly took cash, but Jones said at least one gun is unaccounted for.

Authorities declined to specify what property was taken because the robbery remains under investigation.

As public administrator, DeMeo said, Jones brought "an air of respectability" to an office rocked by scandal a decade ago. In January 2000, Nye County voters recalled Public Administrator Robert "Red" Dyer after just over a year on the job. Two years later, Dyer was jailed on a host of criminal charges related to property he had stolen from the dead.

He was eventually sent to prison for theft, possession of stolen property, insurance fraud and witness tampering.

His wife, Jennette Dyer, also was implicated in the crimes but disappeared before her trial. DeMeo said there are still warrants out for her arrest.

The Nye County sheriff's office wants help with its investigation into the robbery at Jones' house. Anyone with information should call 775-751-7000 or send an e-mail to ncso_detectives@co.nye.nv.us. Tips can be submitted anonymously.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@review journal.com or 702-383-0350.