A local official who had been under investigation for months by a reporter in Las Vegas was arrested on a murder charge.
Robert Telles, the public administrator of Clark County in Nevada, was arrested Wednesday after Jeff German was stabbed to death outside his home on Friday after what police described as an altercation.
The body of the 69-year-old Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter was found the next morning.
He died of “multiple sharp-force injuries,” the Clark County Coroner’s and Coroner’s Office said.
The arrest of Telles, 45, was confirmed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which claimed that Mr. German had written stories about him.
Steven Wolfson, the county district attorney, told the New York Times that Telles had been taken into custody.
Telles, whose office oversees the properties of people who died without a will or family contact, was arrested on a murder charge, according to Clark County Detention Center records.
Mr. German was well known for his decades of reporting on political wrongdoing and organized crime in Nevada’s largest city.
He had spent months reporting complaints that Telles was having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate and overseeing an abusive workplace, which the county official denied.
Police outside Robert Telles’ home on Wednesday. Image: AP
In June, weeks after the publication of Mr. German’s investigation, Telles failed in his candidacy for re-election. He was supposed to leave office in January.
Las Vegas police confirmed in a Twitter post that a suspect in Mr. German’s murder had been arrested but did not identify him.
Glenn Cook, executive editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, said German’s colleagues were devastated by his killing.
“It was the gold standard of the news world,” he said.
“It’s hard to imagine what Las Vegas would be like today without its many years of lighting up dark places.”
