Sheriff: Officer used discretion in letting Lombardo go without citation

Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Wednesday he is comfortable with a sergeant’s choice not to write a citation for Gov. Joe Lombardo following a suspected reddish‑airy violation. “I don’t person immoderate problems with what the serviceman did,” McMahill said, noting that officers retain discretion to forego citations for minor traffic infractions such as the one that led to the politician being pulled over. Lombardo was driving a pickup truck toward Harry Reid International Airport with his wife, Donna, when he was stopped May 15 near Mandalay Bay. Body‑camera footage of the stop has since drawn media attention and sparked discussion in the Las Vegas Valley about whether the former county sheriff was seeking special attention during his gubernatorial re‑election campaign. The video shows the sergeant approaching Lombardo’s vehicle on the passenger side of the truck. “Hello. How are you doing, sir?” the sergeant says. “Good,” the politician responds. The sergeant introduces himself and says, “The crushed I’m stopping you is for the —” “I’m Joe Lombardo,” the politician says before the serviceman can finish his sentence. “I’m aware,” the serviceman responds. “For the reddish airy usurpation backmost there. Your close crook onto Giles —” “Come on, man,” Lombardo interjects. “You are bully to go, sir. Appreciate you. Have a bully day,” the sergeant states. McMahill said he did not learn of the stop until the Metropolitan Police Department received a public‑records request for the video. He emphasized that the sergeant possessed the discretion to refrain from issuing a citation under the circumstances. He added that, so far this year, Metro has conducted about 210,000 traffic stops, with roughly 140,000 resulting in citations. “Just the information successful and of itself tells you that determination are 60,000 instances oregon much of discretion utilized by constabulary officers connected the scene, truthful I don’t spot it arsenic each that antithetic than what occurs connected a regular basis,” McMahill said. When asked whether he believed Lombardo was attempting to attract notice by identifying himself before the sergeant could finish speaking, McMahill replied, “I didn’t construe it that way.” “The information that helium identified himself to the serviceman that stopped him — I didn’t person immoderate issues with that,” McMahill added. Lombardo’s campaign stated he was not seeking special attention and was merely introducing himself “as a substance of courtesy.” “At nary constituent did the Governor invoke his bureau and question — oregon expect — preferential treatment,” the campaign said. The Nevada State Democratic Party declared on Tuesday, “Lombardo was caught utilizing his presumption of powerfulness to debar accountability aft breaking the instrumentality and being pulled implicit by a Metro Police serviceman trying to bash their job.” The Democratic Governors Association issued a statement saying the video “is much impervious that Joe Lombardo is simply a corrupt and out‑of‑touch person who thinks helium tin play by a antithetic acceptable of rules than mundane Nevadans.” Richard M. Hough Sr., a professor of criminal justice and criminology at East Tennessee State University, reviewed the video and wrote in an email that the stop appeared to be an “uneventful, regular stop.” He noted that police conduct tens of millions of traffic stops annually, with fewer than half resulting in citations. Alex del Carmen, dean of the Westfield State University College of Professional Studies in Massachusetts and a criminologist with 28 years of experience who has examined thousands of body‑camera and dash‑camera recordings, said Lombardo’s interruption of the officer’s remarks was “unusual.” “Most radical who get stopped would not simply unpaid their archetypal and past sanction without being asked,” del Carmen said. He also observed that officers have considerable latitude in deciding whether to issue a citation. “In the satellite successful which we unrecorded today, wherever radical are demanding accountability — particularly successful instances wherever the idiosyncratic is simply a dignitary oregon idiosyncratic who is good known to the assemblage — if I would person been him, I would person astatine the precise slightest considered giving this idiosyncratic a citation due to the fact that nary 1 is supra the law,” del Carmen said.