S e e W f

C a C D c A e

O e ea P ec
Prosecutors ho d extraordinary discretionary power in the American justice system. How they exercise their discretion is
the difference between fairness and corruption; between justice and inequa ity; between a community that has faith in
its justice system and the aw essness that occurs when it does not.

Steve Wo fson, District Attorney for C ark County, Nevada, which is home to over two mi ion peop e and encompasses
Las Vegas, wie ds tremendous power. Wo fson has used that power to a ow po ice officers to ki civi ians with impunity,
fight against DNA testing for a sex assau t survivor wrongfu y convicted of murder, and earn himse f the dubious
distinction of being the second dead iest prosecutor in America

The P ce f J ce
C ark County District Attorney Steve Wo fson gives sweetheart dea s to the wea thy c ients of crimina defense awyers
who give him a ot of money. Sarah Hawkins, President of Nevada Attorneys for Crimina Justice, put the point best: This
sme s bad and if o don t think it does o re not pa ing c ose eno gh attention

The b a e h a In 201 , tech bi ionaire Henry Nicho as received what C ark County pub ic
defenders described in a court fi ing as a sweetheart dea from Wo fson’s
ca e f f ega
office. Nicho as and a friend were arrested in Las Vegas in on charges
d g of drug trafficking after po ice found a trove of drugs—heroin, cocaine,
methamphetamine, and ecstasy—in their hote room. The p ea dea a owed
for Nicho as and his friend to p ead to possession and avoid fe ony drug
trafficking charges and prison. David Chesnoff and his firm, David Z.
Chesnoff Chartered, represented Nicho as. Chesnoff and his firm have
donated $ 0,000 to C ark County District Attorney Steve Wo fson.
Chesnoff’s ega partner, Richard Schonfe d, donated another $20,000,
whi e his wife, Diana Chesnoff, donated an additiona $10,000.

The e a a fa Former schoo teacher Kathryn Mayorga accused soccer-star Cristiano

cce a Rona do of raping her in a Las Vegas hote room. Rona do himse f described
the events of the evening to his awyers: It as ro gh She said that she
didn t ant to b t she made herse f a ai ab e The ho e time it as
ro gh Ma be she got some br ises hen I grabbed her B t she kept sa ing
no Don t do it I m not ike the others I apo ogi ed after ards Rona do
entered into a $ 0,000 dea with Mayorga, ostensib y paying her hush
money. Chesnoff represented Rona do, too, and made a statement on his
beha f, but that representation was short- ived. Wo fson dec ined to
prosecute. At the time Wo fson made that decision, Peter S. Christiansen
was Rona do’s awyer. He, too, made a sizab e contribution to Wo fson.

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The ce ff ce fac g During Wo fson’s re-e ection bid, the Las Vegas Defense Group hosted a
fundraising event for him. His campaign received a f ood of donations from
d e c e ce cha ge
oca awyers and other residents fo owing the event. The Las Vegas
Defense Group’s website boasts of convincing Wo fson’s office to give
their c ients a break in serious crimina cases, inc uding domestic vio ence
prosecutions: O r c ient is a Henderson po ice officer facing a batter
domestic io ence charge Prior to the sched ed tria the prosec tor agreed to
dismiss the entire case No o r c ient can get his record sea ed right a a

The Sec d Dead e P ec A e ca

The death pena ty in America is a but dead In a country that is home to over 0 mi ion peop e, ast year was the sixth
straight year with fewer than 0 death sentences, down from a peak of 1 in 1 .

The ec d b d- h There are over 2, 00 prosecutors in America. Over the past decade, Steve
Wo fson oversaw the prosecution of at east a dozen peop e sentenced to
ec A e ca
death row, more than any other sitting oca prosecutor in the country except
for Mike Hestrin, the District Attorney in Riverside County, Ca ifornia.

F gh g ha d e ec e a Nevada has not carried out an execution in over 1 years, but Wo fson has
fought hard to obtain an execution warrant against Zane F oyd, a
b a -da aged U.S. a
decorated-U.S. mi itary veteran on the state’s death row. F oyd was born
e e a brain damaged and ater wou d be diagnosed with feta a coho syndrome,
severe y physica y abused and bu ied as a chi d, and diagnosed with post-
traumatic stress disorder fo owing his mi itary service. Experts be ieve
F oyd, who had no other serious run-in with the aw, was under a drug-
induced psychosis at the time of the murder. The jury that sentenced F oyd
never heard most of this evidence.

Ra a a d ega Near y ha f of the peop e Wo fson’s office sought the death pena ty against
are B ack ( ) even though on y 1 of C ark County residents are B ack.
ac a b a
The racia bias from Wo fson’s office a so extends to jurors in death pena ty
cases. The Nevada Supreme Court has reversed at east four death
sentences from the C ark County District Attorney’s office based on i ega
race discrimination during jury se ection. During ora argument in one death
pena ty case out of Wo fson’s office, Nevada Supreme Court Justice
Michae Cherry remarked: This isn t the first time e e been in the rodeo on
on i ega race discrimination ith the C ark Co nt district attorne s office
o are so afraid of osing a case that o are knocking off African Americans
consistent

Fa T H d P ce Off ce Wh B ea The La Acc ab e

Wo fson does not ho d po ice officers in Las Vegas who use dead y force accountab e, even in cases where independent
ana ysis indicates that the officer acted improper y. Though promising to prosecute officers who break the aw and ki
civi ians, Wo fson has repeated y fai ed to fo ow through on that promise.

A c e f Under Wo fson, the District Attorney’s office has overseen over one
hundred cases where the actions of officers a eged y caused a citizen’s
death. Wo fson sought charges in on y two of those cases. Despite the fact
that experts say a grand jury wi “indict a ham sandwich” if a prosecutor
asks it to, the grand jury fai ed to return an indictment in both cases.
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 Wo fson cou d have prosecuted the cases without grand jury approva , but
he dec ined to do so. One of those cases invo ved a po ice officer who
tasered a man ho approached the officer o tside of a casino and asked him
for directions to the nearest ater fo ntain The officer thought he seemed
suspicious, so he approached the man, struck him in the head near y a
dozen times, tasered him seven times, and then choked him using a banned
martia arts technique for over a minute unti he ost consciousness and
died. The po ice department fired the officer for vio ating its use-of-force
po icies, and paid Brown’s fami y 2.2 mi ion do ars, which remains the
argest payout the department has ever made.

La Vega ce a In 2011, Officer Jesus Areva o shot and ki ed Stan ey Gibson, a Gu f War
veteran. Po ice tracked down Gibson in his car after ca s of dangerous
a ed, d ab ed c ba
driving and an attempted break-in. Gibson mistook a different apartment
e e a for his own and was ost. Gibson suffered from post-traumatic stress
disorder and had visited the hospita ear ier that day for an anxiety attack
where he reported being without his medication. Officers pinned Gibson’s
car between three po ice cruisers and ordered him to exit the vehic e. After
he refused to get out of the car, Areva o shot seven times into the vehic e,
ki ing Gibson. Wo fson’s office u timate y issued a report conc uding that
the cond ct of Officer Are a o as not crimina In 201 , the Las Vegas
Metropo itan Po ice Department sett ed a federa awsuit fi ed by Gibson’s
wife for $1. mi ion.

P ce h a d a In March 201 , Officer Raymond Lopez confronted a home ess man named
David Robinson in the backyard of an abandoned home. According to
h e e a
Lopez, after he asked for Robinson’s wa et, Lopez saw Robinson reaching
for something shiny, and thinking it might be a knife, Lopez shot Robinson
mu tip e times in the head. An investigation determined that the on y knife
in Robinson’s possession was b ade up in his back pocket, making Lopez’s
version of events virtua y impossib e. Once again, Wo fson’s office found
that the actions of Officer Lope cannot be deemed crimina Robinson’s son
and his widow fi ed suit against the city, which they sett ed for $ 00,000.

The A ea a ce f C
It’s impossib e to know whether any specific financia support has inf uence on a pub ic officia ’s decision-making, but
ethica standards and good prudence strong y advise that these pub ic eaders avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
Steve Wo fson has done the opposite, running head-first into situations that bare an uncanny resemb ance to impropriety.

Re e e In 201 , Wo fson tapped a Las Vegas firm ca ed Eg et Prince to serve as

outside counse for C ark County’s itigation against opioid manufacturers
and distributors, which cou d net the firm tens of mi ions of do ars. Eg et
Prince is a major Wo fson supporter; it organized a fundraiser for him in
201 and donated $10,000 to his campaign just one month prior to the
firm being hired by C ark County to work on the opioid case.

Jac Since 201 , bi ionaire casino mogu Steve Wynn’s companies, Wynn
Resorts and Wynn Las Vegas, have together given Wo fson more than
$20,000. In 201 , The Wa Street Journa pub ished a egations from a
series of women who worked with Wynn that he had sexua y assau ted
them. Wo fson dec ined to prosecute any of the cases.

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A e-affa h he Back when Wo fson was a awyer in private practice, the Las Vegas Po ice
Protective Association (PPA) repeated y used him as a hired gun to defend
ce
po ice officers facing crimina prosecutions. The same union endorsed
Wo fson when he ran for city counci . As a city counci member, Wo fson
was a chief defender of the interests of the union, protecting bonus pay for
officers even as the city faced a severe budget crisis. The union again
endorsed Wo fson for District Attorney. In this ro e, Wo fson has fai ed to
secure a conviction against a sing e po ice officer of the over 100 officers
accused of ki ing a civi ian. Wo fson’s c ose ties to the po ice union a so
he ped aunch his wife, Jackie G ass’, po itica career. In 2002, when his wife
defeated an incumbent to earn a spot on the C ark County District Court
bench, prominent oca po itica observers credited the union’s
endorsement as a significant factor in her victory.

(D )Be e g W e
Both as the District Attorney, and in his previous ro e as a crimina defense awyer, Wo fson has a track record of
outrageous statements and actions that harm women

M f he e ac a e Before becoming C ark County District Attorney, Steve Wo fson

represented a bus driver who beat, raped and fond ed mu tip e 1 year-o d
c e a a a
gir s. Even though Nevada aw says that a chi d under 1 can never consent
to sex with an adu t, Wo fson to d the judge: From hat I gather most of
these acts are consens a an a

Sa e c e a ega Wo fson’s persona aw firm website, which was up and running as recent y
as October of 2020, offered va uab e insight into how Wo fson views sex
a e f e e fa e
assau t victims: Se crime a egations are not a a s tr e and acc rate and
acc are oftentimes fa se acco nts

F gh aga DNA e de ce Kristin B aise Lobato, then an 1 -year-o d teenager who had just
e g e e a e a graduated high schoo , was prosecuted for ki ing a man who had previous y
attempted to rape her. The case against Lobato was weak from the start,
gf c c ed e
re ying on unfounded rumors and devoid of any physica evidence
a a connecting her to the ki ing. An FBI agent wou d ater ca the case against
her, comp ete and utter bu shit Wo fson’s office fought to defend the
conviction in the face of overwhe ming evidence that Lobato was innocent,
inc uding a strong a ibi. Wo fson a so fought against Lobato’s effort to test
DNA evidence, even after the Innocence Project offered to cover the cost
of the testing. In 201 , a judge vacated Lobato’s convictions based on the
strength of her a ibi and scientific evidence undermining the possibi ity that
Lobato had ki ed the man. Fo owing the judges decision, Wo fson fina y
dismissed the charges against her 1 years after Lobato’s tragedy began.

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