Cost of Brooks mess grows by almost $10,000

CARSON CITY — Add $9,400 to the costs incurred by the Nevada Assembly this session in dealing with issues raised by troubled former Assemblyman Steven Brooks.

Costs related to the Brooks matter are in excess of $100,000, but the full amount will not be known for sure.

The $9,400 is for the cost of travel of Legislative Counsel Bureau police officers to Las Vegas, including for protection of lawmakers alleged to have been threatened by Brooks.

The travel costs were released Saturday by bureau Director Rick Combs, and are in addition to the $94,500 billed to the bureau for legal and investigative work in the review that led to Brooks’ expulsion from his Assembly District 17 seat in March.

There are other costs, including overtime for legislative police in reacting to Brooks’ erratic behavior, but Combs said it is not possible to calculate those costs.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported last week that the independent counsel hired by the Assembly to investigate whether the troubled lawmaker should be removed from office cost $66,715. Investigative services added nearly $28,000 to the total.

Brooks’ troubles began with a Jan. 19 arrest in Las Vegas on allegations that he threatened Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, over his committee assignments. A number of other incidents followed, leading a Select Assembly Committee to recommend his removal from office.

The Clark County Commission then appointed Tyrone Thompson to take over Brooks’ North Las Vegas seat for the rest of the session.

The day after his ouster, Brooks was arrested in California following a chase on Interstate 15 by the Barstow Police Department on charges of evading and resisting arrest, throwing objects from his vehicle and harming a police dog. He remains in jail in California.