With 25 years in Clark County government, Assistant Public Administrator Rita Reid has spent most of her career outside the spotlight. And that’s the way she liked it.

In that time, the Southern Nevada native worked as a management analyst in the District Attorney’s Office, served as an assistant county clerk at District Court, and in 2007 moved to the public administrator’s office under Administrator John Cahill. After Cahill’s retirement, and the 2018 election of Robert Telles, Reid continued to work in the office, officially as the second in command. From the look of her work history, she had performed about every duty in the administrator’s office and had more experience in probate and trust matters than her elected supervisor.

Reid’s work life and bureaucratic anonymity began to change in early 2022 after she began experiencing what she calls a hostile work environment under Telles. His instability and volatility led the self-described “worker bee” to challenge Telles in the 2022 Democratic primary.

Her public profile grew after her name began appearing in articles written by Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German that were critical of Telles’ management style and personal behavior, including maintaining an “inappropriate relationship” with a staffer. The articles were damning, and Reid defeated Telles in the June primary.

Reid’s image changed forever after German’s body was discovered Sept. 3 on the side of his Las Vegas home. He had suffered what an officer attending the autopsy described as “approximately seven sharp force injuries to his torso and several wounds to his hands/arms which appeared to be defensive in nature.” A sweeping investigation by Metro’s Homicide team homed in on Telles, who had lost his primary and blamed German for his personal and professional upheaval.

Two weeks ago, the woman who had spent much of her working life in a bureaucratic support role found herself in the glare of one of the biggest murder cases in the country. She was interviewed by Las Vegas media and appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Looking bookish and reserved behind eyeglasses, Reid emotionally described an office in turmoil and an increasingly volatile manager.

A few days before Reid found herself on national television, we talked about her initial hope for the public administrator’s office after Cahill’s retirement and Telles’ election, and how it all degraded into a hostile work environment.

“I think that, overall, … there was support for that,” she said. “He was a young attorney and had been somewhat involved in probate just for a short time. It seemed like that would be good. So, I think the atmosphere leading up to Rob’s coming to the office in January (of 2019) was one of optimism.”

It didn’t last long, Reid says.

“In the very first weeks, Rob Telles had something against me,” she said. “I would only be speculating what it was. I felt there was a serious hatred towards me. He started changing my professional life, which changed my personal life dramatically.”

She says he ostracized her, demeaned her in front of others, and started playing favorites with other staffers. He also grew louder.

“One day shortly after his term started, he came into my office very abruptly, pounded his palms on my desk and leaned in toward me, and he said, ‘We’re going to rip off the bandage. You don’t supervise anyone. Everyone reports to me.’ And he turned around and walked out. And I was stunned. I didn’t even know what to do at that moment. I just stared at the empty doorway where he had just exited. My jaw dropped. I don’t even know what it was like. It was like disbelief. I didn’t even know about what just happened. What’s that all about?”

As a veteran of county government, she had experienced different leadership styles, but says nothing prepared her for Telles.

“He never communicated with me, never had a sit down to say, hey, this is what I want to do,” Reid said. “Nothing professional. And the thing is, what he said was fine. He’s the new department head. If he wants to have direct, hands-on involvement with all his staff, I would have no problem with that. Whatever changes seemed appropriate for him that weren’t illegal, immoral or unethical, I would be supportive. I wouldn’t necessarily like it, but I would be fine with it. It was just the delivery that was just so unprofessional, disrespectful and quite startling. That was my introduction to Rob, and from that point forward it continued to grow worse for me.”

But, she says, she was not alone.

“He would demean me throughout the office,” Reid said. “Initially I believed I was the main target. I was the only target, initially. But over time he started adding people and treating other people in the office very badly.”

By early 2022, Reid’s colleague, estate coordinator Aleisha Goodwin, had filed a 19-page complaint with the Clark County Office of Diversity over what she called Telles’ damaging and unprofessional management of the office, and his “inappropriate relationship” with a staffer. By late May, complaints of bullying and favoritism led the county to bring in former Coroner Michael Murphy to provide temporary oversight of the office just three weeks before the June 14 primary that would see Reid defeat the scandalized Telles.

In the aftermath of German’s stabbing death and Telles’ arrest, the mild-mannered Reid finds herself not only in a leadership position, but also an important witness in the high-profile murder of a reporter.

It’s hard to imagine anything in her work history that has prepared her for whatever comes next.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others. He also offers weekly commentary on Nevada Public Radio station KNPR.