Prosecutors: New messages show Las Vegas lawyer’s hit was genuine

Authorities discovered a new set of messages from Las Vegas attorney Alexis Plunkett that shed light on her intentions to have a jailed ex-boyfriend killed, prosecutors said in court papers filed late Thursday.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Jay P. Raman has asked a District Court judge to keep Plunkett behind bars, citing the recently uncovered messages about a hit on Andrew Arevalo, along with separate witness intimidation charges filed against the 38-year-old criminal defense lawyer this week.

Authorities were tipped off to a September group text message in which Plunkett boasted of having “placed hits” on Arevalo, 28. When investigators searched Plunkett’s cellphones and computers, they found two more separate exchanges sent around the same time.

In one message Plunkett wrote that she knew “a slew of people at HDSP (High Desert State Prison) pissed as hell at him and I’ve asked for PC level beat down or death. They’re lifers. I was like, what do you want? A Tv? Money on your books? Legal work? I got YOU forever if you get HIM. I’m ruthless.”

In another, she wrote: “I’m not joking and I don’t care who knows because NO ONE could link me to an inmate attack.”

Earlier this year, District Judge Michael Villani issued Plunkett a stern lecture but refused to jail her in connection with the alleged threats. One of Plunkett’s lawyers, Adam Solinger, said the newly discovered messages shouldn’t threaten Plunkett’s freedom.

“Nothing has changed since then as to warrant revoking her own-recognizance release status,” Solinger said Thursday. “It’s merely hyperbole. … People are in bad situations. They’re stressed out. They vent. I would categorize them as the same thing we dealt with last time.”

Plunkett, who is being held without bail at Clark County Detention Center, is due back in court Friday morning, when her attorneys are expected to ask Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Amy Chelini to dismiss the charges of bribing or intimidating a witness and dissuading or preventing a person from testifying.

Solinger said that he does not believe Plunkett committed a crime. Prosecutors leveled the new charges after alleging that Plunkett made at least two Facebook posts, including one on her law office’s page and another using a pseudonym on the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s page, in which she discussed a “snitch.”

“I do think it is protected speech,” Solinger said. “It’s an opinion. There’s a fine line between stating that somebody is a snitch or a rat and using that as a threat. I’m not sure why that rises to the level of criminality that moves beyond protected speech.”

Plunkett has been ensnared in her own legal battle for about two years, since prosecutors said she allowed clients to use cellphones behind bars.

Villani threw out the charges in September 2017, but the Nevada Supreme Court reversed his decision, and Plunkett’s lawyers want the judge to once again dismiss the case. Solinger is expected to argue next week that the Plunkett’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated when investigators secretly recorded conversations she had with clients.

“No reasonable person would deny that the relationship between an attorney and her client is sacrosanct under the law, and as such is cloaked with the entitlement to privilege and confidentiality, no matter where that work is done,” Solinger wrote in court papers filed this week. “Ms. Plunkett was at all times entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy when she went to the Clark County Detention Center to visit her clients in a private attorney-client visitation room.”

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.