Assembly candidate demanded $888 in bank robbery, police say
A candidate for the Nevada Assembly is accused of robbing a bank with a handwritten note suggesting that she had a gun, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report released Monday.
LaJuana Clark was quickly identified because she wrote her name, address and an apology to the bank’s CEO on the note, saying that she “was sorry it came to this,” adding that “this is a desperate cry for help.”
She signed the note as a former Texas banker, police said.
Clark 47, a Democrat running in Assembly District 3, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on counts of robbery and burglary of a business.
Bail was set at $10,000 Sunday, Las Vegas Justice Court records show. Should she post bond, Clark has been ordered to undergo high-level monitoring house arrest and to stay away from the Chase Bank at 7204 W. Craig Road.
That is where police responded to the midday robbery on Saturday.
A teller told investigators that a woman walked up to her window and handed her a note, the arrest report said.
“I may or may not have a ghost gun, but I don’t want to hurt you,” read the note, which was printed in the arrest report.
It went on to say that Clark wanted $888, and that she had been “a victim of a crime and just wanted to be safe,” police wrote in the report. The teller handed her $1,000, police said.
“God will Rise” and “Jayden is the truth” also were written in the note, police said.
Police said they found the Jayden phrase on Clark’s Facebook page, and that they had identified that person, but they redacted the identification from the report.
Clark was also in part identified because she had just been in contact with Las Vegas police following an incident at an undisclosed office earlier this month.
After the bank robbery, Clark was apologetic when detectives interviewed her, telling them that she did not “want to hurt anyone,” the report said.
She then wrote an apology note, police said.
Clark filed to run for office on March 21, listing two business entities, of which one is listed with an active license in Nevada as Ms. LaJuana Styles LLC, Nevada Secretary of State records show. She wrote in the filing that her income came from Door Dash and “Professional Services.”
Clark, who was running in the Democratic primary against incumbent Assemblywoman Selena Torres, last week told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she was planning to withdraw from the race.
“I can’t even fathom wanting to serve this state after being a victim of so many horrific (sic) crimes,” she wrote in emails, but didn’t elaborate. “I have nothing left to say… When I speak again the world will know who God truly is.”
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.