Another Catch-and-Release Tragedy

(Chuck Muth) – Early last Saturday, convicted criminal “Pedro Lopez-Villasenor plowed into an oncoming BMW” in southwest Las Vegas driving 90-mph in a 35-mph zone.

His victim is “in critical condition with a broken leg and internal injuries.”

Lopez-Villasenor did not have a driver’s license, and the story in today’s Las Vegas Review-Journal does not indicate if he’s in the country illegally.

According to the police report, “Lopez-Villasenor’s eyes were bloodshot and his breath smelled of alcohol.”

Not exactly surprising since METRO reports the 29-year-old “has been arrested on suspicion of being behind the wheel while impaired in February 2013, May 2020 and August 2021 in Las Vegas and in August 2019 in Henderson.”

Subsequent to Saturday’s arrest, “officers found a part of an AR-15, a 9 mm ghost gun pistol, a semi-automatic 9 mm pistol, two pistol magazines and some bullets.”

As a convicted criminal, Lopez-Villasenor was prohibited from possessing a weapon. But for some reason, this criminal decided to ignore the law.  Go figure.

Police also found “a 1-pound bag of marijuana, a 23-gram baggie full of an unidentified white powder, some small loose baggies and a pill container with about 45 unknown white pills.”

All of which raises the question: Why was he on the street?

Did the DA in his previous cases cut a deal to let him go?

Did a soft-on-crime judge hand him a get-out-of-jail free card?

Lopez-Villasenor’s victim – who is fighting for his life – and his family would like to know.

So would I.

It’s time for the press to fulfill its obligation to honor the public’s “right to know” by naming names in incidents such as this – which now seem to occur on an almost daily basis.

Police officers are doing their job.  They’re arresting the bad guys.

But the rest of our “justice” system is dropping the ball.  And law-abiding citizens are paying the price – often with their lives.

Enough is enough.

Pigpen Project

The Clark County Commission is set to appoint a new Registrar of Voters next week.

Jessica Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported this morning that Assistant Registrar of Voters, Lorena Portillo, will be hired to replace Joe Gloria, who retired in January, at the commission’s meeting next Tuesday.

Once the new ROV is in place, the Pigpen Project’s “Strategic Plan” to clean up the county’s voter rolls will begin in earnest.

If you want to get breaking news and updates on the project, you can sign up by clicking here and entering your contact info.

You can also follow us on Twitter: @pigpenproject.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“State Sen. Dina Neal, a Democrat, is proposing a law to pay inmates minimum wage. I’m already paying for housing, meals and health care. These inmates are in there because they broke the law. Enough is enough. I do not wish to pay anymore for those criminals.” – Mary Aquino, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 3/17/23

Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views, and founder of CampaignDoctor.com.  You can sign up for his conservative, Nevada-focused e-newsletter at MuthsTruths.com.  His views are his own.