Legal Brothel Foe Guinasso in Hot Water…AGAIN

(Chuck Muth) – Some politicians are called “Teflon” because scandals and attacks never seem to stick to them.

By contrast, Reno lawyer and anti-brothel activist Jason Guinasso should be called “Pig Pen” – after the Charlie Brown character who attracts dirt with every step he takes.

Guinasso, as regular Muth’s Truths readers know, led a ballot initiative to shut down late Nevada Assemblyman Dennis Hof’s (R-District 36) legal brothels in Lyon County in 2018.

That effort is now subject to various investigations for campaign finance violations over hiding the identity of the local sheriff, Al McNeil, who secretly helped bankroll the campaign.

But this isn’t Guinasso’s first brush with the law, ethics transgressions and questionable behavior.  A brief recap…

• He was a teenage gang-banger who “was busted in possession of a sawed-off shotgun with intent to seek revenge on a bully” while attending Washoe High School.
• He was cited for assault and battery after he “beat the sh*t out of” a senior citizen neighbor with whom he was having a dispute; head-butting the man and giving him a bloody nose and lip
• Police were called to his home to investigate a domestic violence incident with his wife who “fell down and hit the back of her head” during the scuffle
• He was investigated in 2016 for filing to run for a state legislative seat in a district he didn’t live in
• He was referred to by Nevadan Vicki Campbell-Smack as “the lowest of the lowest type of lawyer” for his work on behalf of insurance companies to deny workman’s compensation claims
• He was involved in a controversy related to the “soured” relationship with the former executive director of the State Charter School Authority for which Guinasso currently serves as chairman

Now here’s the latest shoe to drop…

Headline in Tahoe Daily Tribune this week: “Nevada Attorney General: Incline Village General Improvement District board violated open meeting law.”

An excerpt…

“The incident, per the AG’s office, dates back to April 28, 2017 when trustees Kendra Wong, Philip Horan and Peter Morris met with Jason Guinasso, the board’s legal counsel, for a closed session meeting. . . .

“At the meeting, General Manager Steve Pinkerton, Guinasso and staff members discussed with the board the impending initiation of a lawsuit against Governance Sciences Group, Inc. 

“Less than a month later, Pinkerton, acting on behalf of the board, initiated a lawsuit in the Second Judicial District of Nevada.  The board did not authorize the lawsuit in a public meeting, according to the report.”

According to the Tahoe Daily Tribune story, citing the AG report, “Nothing in the board’s policies grant the general manager or general counsel (Guinasso) to initiate a lawsuit on behalf of the board” and “the retainer agreement with Guinasso’s firm does not authorize the board’s legal representation to initiate litigation.”

From the Attorney General’s opinion…

“Here, the board violated the OML (open meeting law) by taking action authorizing the initiation of the lawsuit during its attorney-client session.  By using the OML’s attorney-client exception to take action regarding the lawsuit, the board circumvented the spirit of the OML to take all action during open and public meetings during which members of the public may participate.”

So once again we have Jason Guinasso apparently playing fast and loose with the law and bending it in such a way that it doesn’t apply to him.

In Guinasso World, some people are indeed more equal than others.

At least the political gang-banging Pig Pen with the explosive temper didn’t head-butt anybody this time!

(Mr. Muth is president of CitizenOutreach.org and publisher of NevadaNewsandViews.com.  He blogs at MuthsTruths.com.  His views are his own.)