Las Vegas drug-testing supervisor pleads guilty to taking bribes

The supervisor of a Nevada drug testing facility pleaded guilty Monday to soliciting and accepting bribes to report false negative tests, according to the Justice Department.

Billy Joe West, 57, of Las Vegas misled probation officers between June 21, 2018, and March 19, 2020, and accepted payments from people on probation to report false negative drug tests. He was a supervisor at WestCare Nevada.

“In one instance, in February 2020, in exchange for a $200 cash bribe, West falsely reported a negative drug test for a supervised,” the department said in a statement Monday.

According to the department, West authorized over 100 false reports to the U.S. Probation Office, which led probation officers to believe that their subjects were complying with the court-ordered terms of their supervised release.

West faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the department said. He is to be sentenced on Sept. 8.

Contact Alexis Egeland at aegeland@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexis_egeland on Twitter.