The Nevada Independent

Your state. Your news. Your voice.

The Nevada Independent

Criminal investigations are not the solution to our political problems

Orrin J. H. Johnson
Orrin J. H. Johnson
Opinion
SHARE

Not everything that is bad is necessarily a crime. And not every problem has to – or even is able to – be solved with a government solution.

I was thinking about this as I was reading through the various correspondences between the attorney general’s office and the political enemies of the Storey County Sheriff Gerald Antinoro, the latter of which was functionally demanding Sheriff Antinoro’s arrest over a series of accusations of sexual misconduct. Frankly, it reminds me of those cases we get from time to time where one half of a divorcing couple makes outrageous allegations against a soon-to-be-ex in an attempt to use the district attorney’s office as their divorce lawyer.

That isn’t to say that such accusations are never true, but they are often incredibly difficult to prove. And plenty of time they aren’t true, or the bad behavior was absurdly minimal, so mutual as to be unprosecutable, or even deliberately provoked by the “victim.” Divorce naturally brings out the worst in people, and so often the only provable accusation is that the other half is being a gigantic jerk.

Criminal prosecutors are obligated not to pursue cases unless we believe we can prove them beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. We are not in the business of investigating public officials (or anyone else) for the purposes of giving the public a report on their character, nor should we ever be. After reading the AG’s reports, it makes all the sense in the world to me that every agency which reviewed those requests declined to pursue them, including both a Democratic and a Republican attorney general. Indeed, if there was clear and provable evidence of a criminal offense, it would be more beneficial with respect to his gubernatorial run for Adam Laxalt to pursue that case to show how pro-woman and law-and-order he is than to cover for a divisive small-town sheriff whom Laxalt has already disavowed politically.

But what if there is more meat to those allegations? Joey Gilbert, the attorney for Antinoro political foes Lance Gilman and Don Roger Norman and the person who requested the investigation, said that the AG’s office was “the only and last hope” for the alleged victims, or to hold the Sheriff accountable.

I don’t have access to all of the evidence the AG did, and so frankly can’t know whether the decision not to proceed with a criminal case was the correct one. But I know without any doubt that this “last and only hope” stuff is a bunch of nonsense. First and foremost are the civil lawsuits against Antinoro which are already underway. Second is the electoral process, and the people of Storey County really seem to want to keep this guy as their chief law enforcement officer, even with pending ethics complaints and private litigation being fully a matter of public record. That’s democracy for you, after all. And of course, investigating and reporting on the behavior of public officials is – thanks to the First Amendment and the internet – something any interested citizen can tackle.

While perhaps not as theoretically satisfying as seeing someone you don’t like in handcuffs, each of these three alternatives has the advantage of being something you don’t need to rely on another government bureaucrat to initiate. 

This whole business is yet another reminder to us all why we should stop relying on government for so much, or why governments should be carefully limited at every level. I don’t know if Antinoro is a criminal, but he definitely doesn’t sound like a guy who should be trusted with too much power.

And Antinoro may or may not be a pig or fit to be a county sheriff, but the “solution” of having another government agency prosecute first and ask questions later every time wealthy or powerful political opponents of a given elected official writes a letter demanding it? That’s a cure far worse than the disease. Our political culture is toxic enough – imagine if public/private legal fishing expeditions/witch-hunts become the norm at all levels of government. No thank you. While I don’t want anyone to be above the law, and believe it’s important to have mechanisms to criminally prosecute high ranking public officials who commit crimes, politically weaponized government agencies with arrest power (like, say, FBI agents who would attempt to use their police power to derail a political candidate they don’t like) are far more corrosive to civil society and the rule of law.

The various lawsuits against Antinoro will proceed, no doubt providing us all with sensational headlines for months to come and ammunition for his political opponents. Any new allegations of criminal conduct should be investigated and dealt with as they come, and almost certainly will be. That is how it should be. Both the current attorney general and his predecessor were right to recognize the limits of their power in this matter.

Orrin Johnson has been writing and commenting on Nevada and national politics since 2007. He started with an independent blog, First Principles, and was a regular columnist for the Reno Gazette-Journal from 2015-2016. By day, he is a deputy district attorney for Carson City. His opinions here are his own. Follow him on Twitter @orrinjohnson, or contact him at [email protected].

 

SHARE

Featured Videos

7455 Arroyo Crossing Pkwy Suite 220 Las Vegas, NV 89113
© 2024 THE NEVADA INDEPENDENT
Privacy PolicyRSSContactNewslettersSupport our Work
The Nevada Independent is a project of: Nevada News Bureau, Inc. | Federal Tax ID 27-3192716