Social worker arrested in child solicitation case is state employee
A social worker recently arrested on suspicion of soliciting a teen for prostitution has been a state employee since 2018 and previously worked for Clark County, officials said.
The state of Nevada, in a response to an open records request filed Tuesday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, confirmed that Surafel Abraha, 38, is an employee.
“Mr. Abraha has been at Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services as a Clinical Social Worker 1 since December of 2018,” said Martha Framsted, spokeswoman for the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, in an email to the newspaper Wednesday.
Las Vegas police said Abraha was arrested April 2 and booked at the Clark County Detention Center on a charge of soliciting a child for prostitution. No criminal complaint had been filed in the case as of Wednesday.
A police report said Abraha was arrested after a man responded to an online ad and engaged in a text conversation with an undercover officer who was posing as a 17-year-old female prostitute.
Clark County spokesman Erik Pappa said Abraha was hired by the county March 28, 2016, in its Social Service Department as a Social Worker 1. He worked less than a year in the position.
“He voluntarily separated less than a year later,” Pappa wrote in an email, adding that Abraha’s departure date for the county was listed as Feb. 24, 2017.
A reason for Abraha’s departure from the county was not specified. The state did not elaborate Wednesday on his employment status. Framsted said in an earlier email that the case is a personnel matter.
The online website Transparent Nevada indicates that Abraha was listed as a “Social Worker I” for the county in 2016 with total pay and benefits of nearly $48,000.
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.