Suspect in Las Vegas reporter Jeff German’s killing claims he was framed

After clashing with a real estate firm while in elected office, Robert Telles escalated the feud this year: He said in court that he believes the company framed him for murder.

Telles, the former Clark County public administrator charged with killing Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German, did not offer any evidence for his accusation. The realty group dismissed it as the act of a desperate man — and Telles later admitted he didn’t have proof to back it up.

It was one of many approaches he’s taken to fend off a murder charge that could send him to prison for life. Several Las Vegas criminal defense lawyers questioned his chances of an acquittal in the trial scheduled to start Monday, given the defense he’s mounted so far and the evidence against him.

Authorities said they found Telles’ DNA under German’s fingernails and clothing in Telles’ home that looked like what the assailant was wearing, plus the attacker drove an SUV that looked like one owned by Telles’ wife.

Defense lawyer Thomas Moskal said prosecutors have a pretty strong case against Telles, and he dismissed the notion that a real estate firm somehow framed him.

“I would say the jury’s not going to be out very long on this case,” said Moskal, a former Clark County prosecutor.

Telles, 47, declined to speak with the Review-Journal about his defense strategy.

His lawyer, Robert Draskovich, said that he will hold prosecutors to their burden and that he anticipates attacking the investigation.

Draskovich filed a motion last month to dismiss the case, claiming police repeatedly violated Telles’ constitutional rights. According to the filing, body camera footage had been deleted, which authorities claimed was accidental, and a search warrant application contained intentional omissions and misrepresentations.

The court previously blocked Telles’ efforts to quash search warrants. District Judge Michelle Leavitt is expected to address the dismissal motion during the first day of trial.

Last year, Telles said in a jailhouse interview that his DNA was planted, though he couldn’t explain how.

Telles lost re-election following German’s reports of turmoil in his office, and he was asked in jail why an adversary of his would kill the man who helped oust him.

Telles replied, in part, that after he lost the race, he continued his “fight against” the real estate firm he had clashed with, and framing him for the murder puts him “in a position where now I look like I’m the one who has no credibility.”

High-profile murder case

Telles is accused of stabbing German to death over stories the 69-year-old longtime journalist wrote about Telles’ conduct in office. He pleaded not guilty.

Jailed without bail for almost two years, Telles has not only claimed evidence was planted, he also alleged a judge was biased, accused the police of misconduct, and took aim at Compass Realty & Management.

A Review-Journal investigation published in January found a cottage industry reaped paydays selling dead people’s homes through probate court, in cases that routinely started without family participation, often ended with sales to the same circle of flippers and no proceeds for heirs, and frequently involved Compass.

While in office, Telles filed a complaint about the firm with Nevada regulators, who dismissed the complaint, and he objected in several probate cases a Compass agent worked on.

“We were his punching bag every week,” Compass official Adam Fenn previously said.

Overall, Telles has personally made several court filings in his murder case and delivered long-winded comments in court, where he often appears holding thick manilla envelopes.

Telles, a former attorney who was suspended from practicing law following his arrest, said at one hearing in his murder case that he wanted to “discuss the truth of what’s happened in this case.”

“I want to hear the truth, but I see you have a big stack of papers in your hand,” District Judge Jerry Wiese replied. “We don’t have time for all of that today.”

‘Don’t know how you get around the DNA’

Defense attorney Robert Langford, whose past cases include a triple murder on the Strip that involved a taxi’s fiery explosion, said criticizing police work is always fair game for the defense. But in Telles’ case, he said, the jury will “look right past that” and focus on Telles’ behavior and the evidence.

He noted that Telles was seen in his driveway, the day before his arrest, washing a car that looked like the vehicle driven by the alleged attacker.

Defense lawyer Jess Marchese, whose past cases include a biker-club racketeering trial that resulted in acquittals, didn’t rule out the possibility that, in general, evidence can get planted. But, he said, he didn’t know “how you get around the DNA.”

“That’s a huge issue,” Marchese told the Review-Journal.

Telles alleged at a January court hearing that he believes Compass framed him for German’s murder.

Until he was arrested, he was “pursuing exposure of Compass Realty’s thievery in probate cases,” he claimed in court. He said the firm was opening cases to sell homes at low prices to partners, who could flip them for as much as double.

“The money that should have been going to families was going into the pockets of these guys,” Telles claimed in court.

Compass is not part of Telles’ case and did not have anyone in court to respond.

The next day, Compass owner Takumba Britt told the Review-Journal that Telles is a “desperate man who has been charged with violently murdering a beloved local journalist” and will apparently “do and say anything to escape answering for this charge.”

Telles had harassed Compass and its agents while in office as he fought with the company in court over probate cases, Britt said.

For Telles to accuse Compass of anything was “unconscionable and irresponsible,” and the company was “evaluating its legal options,” Britt added.

In April, Telles told the Review-Journal in a jailhouse interview that he did not have “any direct proof” to support his accusation.

‘Banging that drum pretty loudly’

The public administrator’s office handles probate cases when families cannot, overseeing a court process that involves transferring ownership of a dead person’s property and settling their debts.

During his term in office, Telles raised concerns about two of Clark County’s most prolific private administrators in the past decade: Estate Administration Services founder Thomas G. Moore and his probate successor, Compass agent Cynthia “Cyndi” Sauerland.

Compass earned commissions in more than 100 probate cases managed by Moore, the Review-Journal found. Sauerland went on to sell more than 100 homes through probate court, including at least two dozen to her Compass associate Fenn, who flipped most of them, and one to Britt.

Moore and Sauerland did not respond to requests for comment.

Telles said in the jailhouse interview this spring that he started intervening in cases because families complained they were being taken advantage of and received nothing from probate cases.

“I was banging that drum pretty loudly because I was seriously concerned about it,” he said.

His persistence was met with strong pushback from the private administrators, as well as no action from state law enforcement and regulators after they reviewed Telles’ complaints, according to court records, emails and other documents obtained by the Review-Journal.

Telles submitted a complaint in the fall of 2019 to Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office about Moore, who told a Clark County commissioner that Telles was “on a mission to destroy my reputation and business career.”

In response to Telles’ complaint, the AG’s investigations division wrote a report that said Moore was a “businessman looking to liquidate” properties “in the most efficient way possible,” and there was “no evidence” of criminal activity or intent.

The Review-Journal obtained the report through a public records request.

Ford’s office declined to comment, as it does not discuss “investigatory techniques,” spokesman John Sadler said.

‘Outside the bounds of his position and authority’

Telles also filed a complaint in early 2022 with the Nevada Real Estate Division against Compass, Sauerland and Fenn that their lawyer blasted as “baseless and disparaging.”

Among other things, Telles wrote in the complaint that Sauerland sold several properties through probate to Fenn and had failed to disclose her employer in probate proceedings.

The regulatory division reviewed the complaint and closed the matter without referring it for disciplinary action, according to Teri Williams, spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, which includes the division.

She would not explain why.

Williams said the most common reasons for a dismissal include: because the complaint fell outside their jurisdiction, or the division, in consultation with the AG’s office, believed there was insufficient or inconclusive evidence.

In March 2022, Jason Hicks, an attorney with legal giant Greenberg Traurig, sharply criticized Telles’ complaint against his clients in a letter to then-Deputy Clark County Manager Jeff Wells.

Telles had stepped “well outside the bounds of his position and authority” in filing the “baseless and disparaging complaint,” Hicks wrote.

Telles’ job was to administer estates as a public service, but he had “apparently seen fit to begin policing real estate licenses and attempt to cause my clients to lose theirs,” Hicks added.

Hicks also had said in court papers in February 2022 that Telles had “reversed course” on his office’s yearslong position of noninterference in cases where a qualified administrator had stepped up — a course of action that Sauerland and others had “developed their livelihood around.”

This spring, Fenn told the Review-Journal that the majority of homes they deal with in probate are in “extreme disrepair due to being abandoned” and that the buyers typically perform a full rehab before they resell them.

Telles doesn’t “understand or refuses to acknowledge this,” Fenn wrote in an email.

Probate ‘ring’ alleged in court

Telles has said that he also approached local law enforcement about the private administrators.

He alleged in a court hearing last year, during proceedings for his murder case, that after he took office he found a “ring” of people who were defrauding the court and families of the dead.

He claimed the ring used two administrators, Moore and then Sauerland — neither of whom were parties to the matter in court, let alone there to respond.

Fenn told the Review-Journal that Compass denies Telles’ fraud allegations.

Telles said at the hearing that he spoke with Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson in early 2022 about his concerns. Wolfson referred him to a Las Vegas police detective, who met with Telles and was going to set up sting operations, Telles claimed.

Wolfson declined to comment.

Asked about Telles’ courtroom account, the Metropolitan Police Department said: “This is still an ongoing investigation.”

‘I ducked it’

John Cahill, Telles’ predecessor in office, didn’t try to block outsiders from overseeing probate cases.

“I ducked it,” he told the Review-Journal last year.

Cahill said his office had plenty of work to do, and he didn’t need to oppose the court’s findings.

“When Telles took over, he wanted to make a big fight out of it,” Cahill said.

Telles was elected in 2018 and went on to file objections in several probate cases that Moore was working on, in an attempt to take the cases himself, court records show.

Moore’s lawyer Taylor Randolph sent a letter to Clark County leaders in February 2020 saying Telles sought to “destroy” his client’s business.

Telles also filed objections in several probate cases that Sauerland was involved with after she took over from Moore in the fall of 2020, court records show.

He wasn’t the only one to voice concerns.

At a court hearing in 2020, a lawyer for a family that sued Moore in a now-settled case called him a “predator” who “tries to take properties away from families” — a claim Moore’s legal team strongly disputed, a court transcript shows.

In 2022, District Judge Jessica Peterson said in court that she had a “real problem” with whether Sauerland was telling heirs about any fees the administrator or her lawyer would take.

The judge later wrote that further investigation was needed to see if Compass should forfeit its commissions. She tasked Telles with running the inquiry into the fees. But not long after, in September 2022, German was killed and Telles was arrested.

This past April, after his jailhouse interview, Telles called a Review-Journal reporter and left a voicemail saying that it had been his job to protect families and that he was hopeful the “entire story” would be fleshed out.

“If for some reason you can’t, I’ll be certain to do that myself once I get out,” he said.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Segall is a reporter on the Review-Journal’s investigative team, focusing on reporting that holds leaders, businesses and agencies accountable and exposes wrongdoing. Review-Journal staff writer Katelyn Newberg contributed to this report.