Why Nevada’s attorney general wants this sheriff ousted
In Esmeralda County, Nevada’s least populated county with just 729 people, Sheriff Nicholas Dondero has been in office for barely a year, but state and local officials want him to turn in his badge.
On Tuesday, in the county seat of Goldfield, within its historic courthouse built in 1908, District Judge Kimberly Wanker will consider a motion of expedited summary judgment filed by the state Attorney General’s Office to legally oust Dondero as sheriff.
The sheriff’s Las Vegas lawyer says not so fast, claiming in a motion that the state “is attempting to rush this court” and that Dondero “must be allowed to undertake discovery,” exchange information and take depositions in the case.
“Something fishy is going on, which is most likely why the state wants to rush this case along and prevent Sheriff Dondero from conducting discovery,” defense lawyer Augustus Claus wrote in a defense opposition document.
From the state’s point of view, there’s nothing fishy about it.
Dondero has not met the qualifications required of a law enforcement officer in Nevada and state law specifically bars him from serving as a peace officer in light of his 2007 plea of no contest to misdemeanor domestic battery against the mother of their young son in a custody dispute, the state contends.
The conviction “makes it legally impossible for him to obtain a peace-officer certification under Nevada law for him to serve as sheriff,” wrote Deputy Solicitor General Kiel Ireland, who is based in Carson City.
Ireland, acting for Attorney General Aaron Ford, in October filed a complaint using an unusual legal action called a “writ of quo warranto” against Dondero, alleging that any sheriff in Nevada, under state law, must be certified as a category I, II or III peace officer, for which Dondero is not qualified based on his domestic violence conviction.
This despite Dondero having had his conviction sealed before he ran for sheriff, which his defense attorney contends under state law means that no crime occurred and it legally and essentially did not happen.
Ireland counters that the Nevada Legislature passed Senate Bill 225 into law last year, preventing certification of anyone as a peace officer with a domestic violence offense “regardless of whether such a conviction was expunged or sealed.”
“The state cannot allow a sheriff to serve in violation of the very law that he is charged with enforcing,” Ireland argues. “It brings this action to remove Dondero from office and ensure that the county’s sheriff possesses the qualification required by Nevada law.”
The Nevada Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, the body that certifies the state’s sheriff’s deputies, police officers and others in law enforcement, provides that a “person may not be appointed to perform the duties of a peace officer” if they have “a documented history of physical violence,” the state claims.
The state also contends that Dondero had one year to obtain certification by POST as the elected sheriff of Esmeralda but had not done so and must forfeit his office.
Not true, says Claus. Dondero was certified as active as a Category I employee classification at the start of 2023, based on a POST summary of his certifications and training history that shows he also passed six courses including use of force policy, firearms proficiency and less lethal weapon proficiency.
But according to the POST summary, Dondero’s Category I certification expired Tuesday.
A major issue to Claus in the case is how the records of Dondero’s misdemeanor domestic violence conviction – included along with a police report as an exhibit in filings by the Attorney General’s Office — was obtained even through it had been sealed by a judge.
“I know of no way of anyone to have legally accessed these records,” Claus said.
Claus also claims the state has incorrectly interpreted the state statute about Dondero having to forfeit his office and also is wrong in justifying the retroactive use of the law that took effect on Oct. 1, when Dondero was elected sheriff in November 2022.
Esmeralda District Attorney Robert Glennen said in an interview that he cannot participate in the case because of a conflict of interest since he also advises the sheriff on criminal prosecution matters.
However, Glennen, in a letter sent in September to Craig Newby, the state’s first assistant Attorney General and included in Ireland’s filing, wrote that he understood that Dondero’s conviction “disqualifies him from being a Sheriff in Nevada under current law.”
Dondero could not be reached by phone at his office in Goldfield.
On November 3, 2022, Dondero won election with 287 votes to 150 for his opponent Matthew Kirkland, according to the state Secretary of State’s office.
Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow @JeffBurbank2 on X.