Nevada Assembly committee to meet Tuesday regarding Brooks

CARSON CITY — The Assembly Select Committee considering whether to oust troubled lawmaker Steven Brooks from the Legislature will meet Tuesday night in the Carson City District Court offices, Assembly Majority Leader William Horne said Wednesday.

The courthouse was selected for security concerns, he said.

Part of the 6 p.m. hearing will be public, but there will be a closed session to consider information that relates to Brooks’ privacy, Horne said.

The seven-member committee, composed of four Democrats and three Republicans, will review the investigation and report by independent counsel Mark Ferrario, a Las Vegas attorney, before making a recommendation to the full Assembly.

Horne said he would like the hearing to take no more than three hours.

He said the committee has a rule to allow the entire hearing to be closed, “but I said from the beginning that this can’t be a completely closed process.”

“But I believe there are some things, for Mr. Brooks’ privacy, that are not for public consumption,” Horne said. “So some of it will just have to be closed off.”

He said he would like the full Assembly to take up the Brooks matter on the next day a floor session is scheduled.

The removal of a sitting lawmaker would be unprecedented in Nevada history.

Brooks, D-North Las Vegas, is on paid leave and banned from the Legislative Building. He is seeking an order from the Nevada Supreme Court to be allowed to return to the Legislature.

If the committee, which is being led by Horne, D-Las Vegas, recommends the removal of Brooks, the Assembly would have to approve the recommendation by a two-thirds vote for it to happen.

The Clark County Commission would pick a replacement to serve in District 17, in North Las Vegas. The appointee would have to be of the same party.

Brooks was banished from the Legislative Building after two recent arrests, including one on Jan. 19 involving Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas. He reportedly was unhappy over his committee assignments. According to police, he had a gun in his car and dozens of rounds of ammunition.

Days after posting bail, he was detained and hospitalized for a mental evaluation after a disturbance at his grandmother’s house involving a sword.

On Feb. 10, he was arrested on suspicion of physically attacking his estranged wife in Las Vegas, then grabbing for an officer’s gun as he was taken into custody.