Officials are investigating whether Nye County Sheriff Joe McGill misused federal and state law enforcement databases, and whether 15 deputies also made unauthorized searches for information.
Nevada’s Department of Public Safety is investigating over a hundred searches the sheriff made for people’s strictly protected law enforcement information since his term began four years ago, McGill told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday. He acknowledged failing to properly document all of his searches but maintained that they were for law enforcement purposes.
He said he does not regret how he made the searches but will change how he does so based on a yet-to-be-finalized state audit.
“I’m doing my job,” McGill said during an interview at his Pahrump office. “When I run a name, I’m doing my job. That’s what I’m paid to do. That’s what I was elected to do.”
He said state officials also are investigating searches made by 15 deputies. McGill said many of the searches were not documented because of default settings in the computer system that since have been addressed.
The databases contain information that is not always public, including adult and juvenile criminal histories, DMV records, property information and warrants.
Unauthorized searching or dissemination of information from state and federal Criminal Justice Information System, also known as CJIS, databases can result in sanctions by state and federal officials. It also can be a misdemeanor criminal offense, according to state law.
A Department of Public Safety official said in May that although an audit was taking place, the agency was not conducting a criminal investigation of McGill, according to a copy of the email obtained by the Review-Journal. McGill said Friday he has no reason to believe that has changed.
State officials had not answered emailed questions about the audit as of Friday.
Sheriff expects to regain access to databases
McGill said the Nye County Sheriff’s Office sent a representative to Carson City last Monday and Tuesday to meet with auditors, and he believes the meeting went well.
A previous Department of Public Safety audit conducted in March found that the agency was out of compliance with CJIS policies and that searches in the databases were not being properly documented, according to an audit report.
McGill was suspended from accessing the databases in April. He expects to have his access reinstated following a second audit report, which McGill said will be a “nothing burger.”
Email records released by the Sheriff’s Office show that employees sent state officials complaints about McGill’s use of the databases and reported that there was evidence he made over a hundred searches without a clear reason. One employee told higher-ups that she found evidence of searches related to people who opposed McGill online, local political figures and members of the media.
McGill told the Review-Journal he did not assign a unique identifier to each search, which is how law enforcement tracks work in investigations.
Sheriff’s office policies state that searches for criminal justice information must include a unique identifier or explanation of why the search was run.
The sheriff claimed training provided by the state did not properly teach him how to document his searches.
Lawsuit, complaints from Nye County resident
McGill made a public statement on his Facebook page in May, claiming that a state audit was the result of a “frivolous and baseless” complaint received against him and that the allegations were part of a “political smear effort.”
In an email sent that day to Sheriff’s Office employees, he said state officials were investigating one of his searches. A captain in the office told McGill there were actually “hundreds” of searches in question.
“Between this email and your public comments, it is clear to me that you are not being honest to your staff or the public,” Capt. Harry Means, a former spokesperson for the agency and Nye County’s current interim human resources director, told McGill in an email.
McGill said Friday that he does not believe his statement was misleading and that he was probably referring to a specific search he made about Pahrump resident John Sorget. The sheriff said Sorget has a “personal vendetta” against him.
The first audit was spurred by a complaint from Sorget, who runs the YouTube channel “Save Nye County.” He’s been posting videos since April, the vast majority of which are about McGill and the Sheriff’s Office.
Sorget filed a federal lawsuit in March against Nye County, McGill and Nye County District Attorney Brian Kunzi, alleging that McGill used the CJIS system to access his criminal history without reason and violated his First Amendment rights.
According to Sorget, who is representing himself in the lawsuit, he made a Facebook post expressing dissatisfaction with the Sheriff’s Office and McGill. The post came after he spoke with McGill about a child abuse investigation involving Sorget’s children and how Sorget was not satisfied with the agency’s investigation.
Sorget said that after the Facebook post, he received a “slew of threats” referencing private information and his criminal history, including a juvenile trespassing charge he received in Colorado as a teenager nearly 25 years ago. Sorget said his juvenile history would be accessible only to police.
He first emailed a complaint to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office in late January, alleging that his criminal history information was accessed and distributed. McGill denies distributing Sorget’s information.
Since then, Sorget said he’s made multiple public records requests and estimated he’s sent nearly three dozen emailed complaints about the law enforcement agency to Sheriff’s Office employees and the Department of Public Safety.
McGill said Friday that he accessed Sorget’s information because of concerns Sorget had about the child abuse investigation.
Email records also show that McGill sent a justification for the search to state officials in April. In that message, McGill claimed he searched Sorget’s name at the request of Sheriff’s Office employee Ashley Castillo, who has ties to Sorget.
Castillo is the office’s terminal agency coordinator in charge of overseeing the agency’s compliance with CJIS databases.
“It is my strong belief that our TAC, Ashley, ‘set me up’ for political purposes in attempt to discredit me as I am running for re-election,” McGill wrote.
McGill declined to talk about Castillo on Friday because she is still an employee of the Sheriff’s Office. Castillo did not respond to a request for comment.
Sorget, who said he’s friends with Castillo, started his YouTube channel after he began submitting complaints. He said he felt that his concerns were “falling on deaf ears.”
“If I can’t get the attention or get somebody to take action, then I’m going to at least make people aware,” he said.
Sheriff searched controversial judge’s information
The Nye County Sheriff’s Office redacted some names in emails released to the Review-Journal, citing privacy concerns, so it remains unclear who else was searched by officers in the databases.
Emails indicate that several people made public records requests to determine if their own name was searched in the system. Michele Fiore, a suspended Pahrump justice of the peace, told the Review-Journal she made one of those requests.
The Sheriff’s Office told Fiore that her name had been searched by the agency’s staff five times from December 2022 through May, according to a copy of the email seen by the Review-Journal.
“You have to realize they ran me when I was a sitting judge,” Fiore said in a brief phone interview with the Review-Journal. “It’s disturbing.”
During the time period the searches were run, Fiore was indicted by a federal grand jury, found guilty at trial and pardoned by President Donald Trump in a federal wire fraud and conspiracy case. Federal prosecutors said she raised tens of thousands of dollars for a statue honoring a fallen Las Vegas police officer and then spent the money on personal expenses.
Fiore, who was suspended from the bench and is facing disciplinary charges, lost her bid to return to Pahrump Justice Court during the June primary.
The email Fiore received from the Sheriff’s Office did not state why staff searched her name in the criminal justice database.
McGill told the Review-Journal he personally searched her name one time, “because I knew that she was a gun advocate.” He said the search happened after she was found guilty by the jury, and he wanted to know if she was allowed to possess a gun.
If Fiore was going to be “showing up at events with a firearm, we should know about that,” McGill said.
Elections again coincide with controversy
McGill claimed that his comments have been twisted on social media.
“I’m tired of the constant wondering what the next thing is going to be said,” McGill said. “And now that the audit is completed, I think it’s time I start standing up for myself.”
McGill won 41.2 percent of the votes in the June primary. His opponent, retired law enforcement officer Dan Pineau, received 24.3 percent of the votes. They will face each other in the general election in November.
Pineau told the Review-Journal that the Department of Public Safety investigation is a concern for voters and that rumors about it have run rampant on social media.
He said McGill should be held accountable if it’s found he misused the databases.
“If he did break the law, absolutely he should be tried criminally,” Pineau said. “Charges should be filed against him if he did misuse the system for personal gain.”
The Sheriff’s Office has faced controversy recently after two deputies were arrested in connection with the in-custody death of 30-year-old Stevie Miller. They were accused of failing to call for medical help as Miller was dying of a drug overdose in the county jail, according to police records.
The last Nye County sheriff’s election was similarly shadowed in controversy. McGill beat then-Sheriff Sharon Wehrly in 2022, following a Review-Journal investigation into the questionable behaviors of former Cap. David Boruchowitz, a prominent figure in the agency who pleaded guilty last year to federal charges of wire fraud and deprivation of rights.
After winning the November 2022 election, McGill said Nye County voters were “due for a change.”
McGill told the Review-Journal he believes he has changed the office for the better.
“The community as a whole is happy with what the Nye County Sheriff’s Office is doing,” he said. “Are there always going to be individuals that you cannot satisfy? Absolutely.”
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Newberg is a member of the Review-Journal’s investigative team, focusing on reporting that holds leaders and agencies accountable and exposes wrongdoing.
