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Defendants in courthouse scam plead not guilty to charges
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Defense lawyer Brian Bloomfield and four others pleaded not guilty Wednesday to criminal charges contained in a new 60-count indictment that details a sweeping courthouse counseling scam.
Bloomfield, 36, former counseling service owner Steven Brox, 46, and juvenile probation officer Robert Chiodini, 41, originally were indicted in December in a scheme that provided prostitutes and other defendants with phony certificates of completion for court-ordered counseling and community service. They face a variety of charges, including conspiracy to commit a crime, forgery and offering a false instrument for filing or record.
The superseding indictment filed earlier this month added two new defendants to the scheme: Bloomfield's wife, Amber McDearmon, 28, and bail bondsman Thomas Jaskol, 32. Bloomfield and the two new defendants are charged with conspiring to destroy evidence in the case.
District Judge Jessie Walsh set a March 14 hearing to determine a trial date for the five defendants, who all are free on bail.
The destruction of evidence case revolves around the testimony of Brandon Snowden, a jailed felon and former Bloomfield employee. Snowden, 28, told a county grand jury that he helped Bloomfield, McDearmon and Jaskol destroy office records linked to the investigation during a late-night rendezvous after a police raid in April 2010.
At the time, Bloomfield and McDearmon were not married but were living together. The couple had twins in October, and county records show they were married in January.
McDearmon has a gross misdemeanor conviction for conspiracy to commit burglary, and her case is one of those identified in the superseding indictment as including phony certificates of completion.
Bloomfield represented McDearmon, who never showed up for dozens of hours of court-ordered community service but ended up getting certificates of completion for the hours, according to grand jury transcripts.
Prosecutors have filed court papers seeking to reopen her sentencing.
Jaskol co-owned Downtown Bail Bonds, 608 S. Third St., in April 2010 when the law office records were destroyed, grand jury transcripts show. His company no longer is in business.
Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.
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@JustTheFacts: I assume that the criminal defendants paid for the course and paid extra for the privilege of not having to take the course. Otherwise, this makes no sense. I can speculate that it started when McDearmon was arrested and ordered to take a course, and her boyfriend/attorney Bloomfield talked to someone about her paying for, but not having to take, the course. but that is just speculation.
Yeah Jeff, check that out. They framed the probation officers involved in that deal, ended up being "dishonorably discharged". You know, the plot in that e-book published about 12 years ago, kinds of charges the main character was facing; plans for getting out of the legal jam he was in, etc. Hope you are collaborating with Perly on all these gems HawkBros are sending. ImpeccableDiligence will be in correspondence with her today. Thanks Jeff.
Am I missing something? I understand the providing false records to the court, saying defendants completed a mandatory course when they didn't as being a crime. I don't understand what was in it for these folks? Other than the lawyers girlfriend who received an unearned certificate, the rest of the people ordered to take the courses were unaware that they were being "passed." So if they didn't sign up and pay the fee to take the course, how was money made on this arrangement? Or is it a case of people paid for the course and were never made to attend and take the test because these folks had people doing that part of it?
Author German forgot to add that this case is one of the reasons DA Roy L. Nelson, III was fired as a DA. Does anyone know where Nelson is working now?
FELONS OF A FEATHER, FLOCK TOGETHER ??
ABOVE THE LAW----WHERE IS STEVEN SEGAL WHEN U NEED HIM ????
To "victim": The case does not hinge entirely on the word of a felon. The felon did little more than present a bag of shredded documents to Metro. Metro reassembled the documents which apparently speak for themselves. I base this on information that has been reported in this newspaper.
Of course they plead Not Guilty. That opens up the door for the prosecution to spin the Plea Deal Wheel Of Fortune. Bye the time everything is done, they will be convicted of shoplifitng
This entire case rests on a jailed felon. While I have never been to jail, I am sure that anyone in jail, especially a repeat offender like McDearmon, would throw anyone under the bus for a lighter term or leniency. Some Metro dweeb likely gets a gold star for indicting a lawyer. Does anyone besides me, a humble mechanical engineer, see a problem with prosecuting a lawyer, his wife, and a probation officer on the word of a jailed felon? To me, the word of a lawyer means a lot more than some of the pond scum he represents. Yet since Metro officers stole thousands of dollars of tools from me after a bogus "arrest," maybe they identify closer with criminals than lawyers.