Edited to add: Here's a LINK to an in-depth analysis by Confederate Yankee of this incident - the illegal entry into Erik's home by Clark County Public Administrator Steve Grodin. Thanks for the suggestion, Mike!!
A new accusation in the shooting death of Erik Scott
Page Last Updated: Thursday February 24, 2011 5:49pm PST
Matt Kozar reporting
There is a new accusation against the government in the case of Erik Scott, the 38 year old man who was shot and killed by Metro officers at a Summerlin Costco last July.
Within hours of the shooting, agents from a little-known county agency, the Public Administrator’s Office, entered the apartment Scott shared with his girlfriend.
Did the government violate her constitutional right to refuse to let them into her home without a warrant?
“This is Steve Grodin from the Public Administrator’s Office. I need to get in touch with you right away. It’s regarding your brother’s property.”
A few hours after Scott was killed by police at Costco, Steve Grodin, a deputy, left that voicemail on the phone of Scott’s brother. The recording was given to News 3 by the Scott family and has since been posted on the internet.
“I’ve got full authority to break the door in, if I have to,” the message continued.
In the voicemail, Grodin said he was with a Metro officer and wanted permission to enter the apartment to secure valuables.
“I’ll get the Metro Police [to] come back when the locksmith gets here.”
The public administrator is responsible for protecting a person’s property when he or she dies and a family member isn’t able to do so. Scott lived at an apartment complex near North Town Center and records show a locksmith made entry and changed the locks on the door after, according to deputies, Scott’s girlfriend wouldn’t cooperate.
According to the corresponding inventory sheet, deputies took several items from Scott’s apartment, including a .40 caliber handgun with two magazines, a West Point saber, four checkbooks, three watches, and a paintball gun.
Public Administrator John Cahill says all of the items were returned to the family.
“We always take firearms,” Cahill explains. “We always take any kind of weapon. We always take cash, jewelry, credit cards.”
Cahill showed us the warehouse where he stores people’s property, which ultimately goes to the state if never claimed.
Cahill says his deputy had full legal authority to enter Erik Scott’s property on the day of the shooting but wishes his deputy hadn’t sounded so abrasive in the voice message.
“Saying something like we can break the door down if we need to go in seemed to me a very awkward way of saying we have the authority to protect the property.”
Cahill told us police accompany his deputies on most calls for safety reasons.
“I asked him [deputy] ‘What did Metro do while you were searching the property? He said they just stood back like they usually do.”
Metro would not speak with News 3 about the incident on-camera, but a spokesperson told us they work with the public administrator frequently.
The Scott family would not speak with us because of pending litigation. We did, however, speak with family friend and de facto family spokesperson Lisa Mayo-Deriso.
“They actually violated the statute. [That] is one of the concerns I have,” Mayo-Deriso said.
Mayo-Deriso says the Scott family believes there was no reason for the public administrator to break into Erik’s home because his live-in girlfriend, who was with Erik during the shooting, could have secured his property.
“They were al little upset because Samantha [girlfriend] had said ‘No, I don’t want you going in there. I have a key and I live there and I can go in.’”
Matt Kozar: What’s most concerning for you about this whole incident?
“The sense of urgency in the voice of the public administrator in the recording; like we have to get in there now. My initial thought is it raises some concern.”
The incident is attracting the attention of Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who worked closely with the coroner’s inquest panel because of the Scott case.
“I think it’s definitely something we need to look at in terms of establishing what the procedure is and have some clearly verifiable, understandable procedure that everybody would follow,” Sisolak said.
The Public Administrator’s Office handles about 1,000 calls a year. The Scott family was charged a $150 Public Administrator’s Office fee in addition to a $110 fee for the locksmith.
Nevada revised statutes say there are exactly two circumstances in which a public administrator may secure property before getting judicial permission: when there are no relatives available to protect the property and when failure to do so could endanger the property.
There is a new accusation against the government in the case of Erik Scott, the 38 year old man who was shot and killed by Metro officers at a Summerlin Costco last July.
Within hours of the shooting, agents from a little-known county agency, the Public Administrator’s Office, entered the apartment Scott shared with his girlfriend.
Did the government violate her constitutional right to refuse to let them into her home without a warrant?
“This is Steve Grodin from the Public Administrator’s Office. I need to get in touch with you right away. It’s regarding your brother’s property.”
A few hours after Scott was killed by police at Costco, Steve Grodin, a deputy, left that voicemail on the phone of Scott’s brother. The recording was given to News 3 by the Scott family and has since been posted on the internet.
“I’ve got full authority to break the door in, if I have to,” the message continued.
In the voicemail, Grodin said he was with a Metro officer and wanted permission to enter the apartment to secure valuables.
“I’ll get the Metro Police [to] come back when the locksmith gets here.”
The public administrator is responsible for protecting a person’s property when he or she dies and a family member isn’t able to do so. Scott lived at an apartment complex near North Town Center and records show a locksmith made entry and changed the locks on the door after, according to deputies, Scott’s girlfriend wouldn’t cooperate.
According to the corresponding inventory sheet, deputies took several items from Scott’s apartment, including a .40 caliber handgun with two magazines, a West Point saber, four checkbooks, three watches, and a paintball gun.
Public Administrator John Cahill says all of the items were returned to the family.
“We always take firearms,” Cahill explains. “We always take any kind of weapon. We always take cash, jewelry, credit cards.”
Cahill showed us the warehouse where he stores people’s property, which ultimately goes to the state if never claimed.
Cahill says his deputy had full legal authority to enter Erik Scott’s property on the day of the shooting but wishes his deputy hadn’t sounded so abrasive in the voice message.
“Saying something like we can break the door down if we need to go in seemed to me a very awkward way of saying we have the authority to protect the property.”
Cahill told us police accompany his deputies on most calls for safety reasons.
“I asked him [deputy] ‘What did Metro do while you were searching the property? He said they just stood back like they usually do.”
Metro would not speak with News 3 about the incident on-camera, but a spokesperson told us they work with the public administrator frequently.
The Scott family would not speak with us because of pending litigation. We did, however, speak with family friend and de facto family spokesperson Lisa Mayo-Deriso.
“They actually violated the statute. [That] is one of the concerns I have,” Mayo-Deriso said.
Mayo-Deriso says the Scott family believes there was no reason for the public administrator to break into Erik’s home because his live-in girlfriend, who was with Erik during the shooting, could have secured his property.
“They were al little upset because Samantha [girlfriend] had said ‘No, I don’t want you going in there. I have a key and I live there and I can go in.’”
Matt Kozar: What’s most concerning for you about this whole incident?
“The sense of urgency in the voice of the public administrator in the recording; like we have to get in there now. My initial thought is it raises some concern.”
The incident is attracting the attention of Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who worked closely with the coroner’s inquest panel because of the Scott case.
“I think it’s definitely something we need to look at in terms of establishing what the procedure is and have some clearly verifiable, understandable procedure that everybody would follow,” Sisolak said.
The Public Administrator’s Office handles about 1,000 calls a year. The Scott family was charged a $150 Public Administrator’s Office fee in addition to a $110 fee for the locksmith.
Nevada revised statutes say there are exactly two circumstances in which a public administrator may secure property before getting judicial permission: when there are no relatives available to protect the property and when failure to do so could endanger the property.
2 comments:
Dear Fred:
You might direct your readers to my Update 6 on the Confederate Yankee Blog. Access the Erik Scott Archive on the right hand side of the home page. That Update deals specifically with this issue in greater depth, and was done many months ago.
Yours,
Mike McDaniel
Confederate Yankee
Thanks, Mike! You're right - the News3 article wasn't breaking news to anyone who follows the case. Yet, the stamp of the mainstream media adds weight, and it is noteworthy when the facts move beyond us bloggers into the general public.
I still plan to post your entire analysis of this case here, exactly as we discussed. I've been avoiding that task because I haven't been up to reading it all again - no reflection on your analysis, which is excellent - it's just depressing all over again whenever I become re-immersed in this sordid mess...
Best,
Fred
Post a Comment