OK, so I’ve called him Beardboy, I’ve said his beard was remarkably absent any boogers or leftover Spaghetti O’s which most guys with beards too often have which is also why beards generally give me the heebie-jeebies, especially on women—but he does indeed have the very best beard in the state! 

It should be in a museum somewhere!!!

And there he was, just standing there all by himself on the corner of Lewis and 3rd Street across from the Courthouse Grille and just past the bottom of the steps leading into the Regional Justice Center.

Just standing there.

In the middle of the day as if there may have not been anything going on in the edifice behind him which is supposed to represent ‘justice’ here.

<–This groovy great-Grandma–Ms Dolly Delightful–is arrested for prostitution in Clark County almost daily and is a familiar face at the RJC having been arrested 297,256 times since the late 1940′s.

She told me over coffee, pastries, and pasties that she feels she’s treated fairly by the new DA’s office and that her chronic horniness will one day be recognized by the AMA as the incurable malady she has always claimed it is!!!

Blending in with the palm trees not trying not to be noticed but not being noticed at all by passersby though he is 9’ 11’’ tall too; I didn’t ask, but he appeared to be waiting for a lunch guest to pull up.

We’ve seen each other before and have said ‘hello’ to one another many times but we’ve never talked or shot the shit—he tends to hang with attorney-types and I flow better with persons needing attorneys—so as I was descending the stairs of the RJC and spotted him, blending in with the scenery despite his physical attributes that makes that nearly impossible, I came up to him and said ‘hello Mr DA; I wanted you to know I think you’re doing a good job so far.’  He always remembers my first name but never my surname so I volunteered it.

<–It was like I put a nickel into Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson; he never shut up after that earning a WatchdogWag column all to himself in the process and bumping the piece that was supposed to run today to another time!!!

I’ve ridden him to encourage him to better and greater things hoping that he not be consumed by the cesspool that is politics and the legal world in Las Vegas; I gotta tell you that I really like this guy for a variety of reasons and our first real—and rather lengthy conversation—just frosted that ‘lil cupcake for me.

This man is exceptionally bright and affable too. 

He knows I don’t like or respect his wife–Jackie pain-in-the-ass Glass–and that I predicted her TV show would fail and she never came up in the conversation—gentlemen tend to avoid ungentle subjects when we want to talk to each other in a gentlemanly fashion—surprising me, he jumped right into conversation with vigor and aplomb initiating the subjects and I went with his flow and at first all I kept thinking to myself was that ‘this guy must have been born with that beard.’

<–And Johnny on the Spot seeing that I was staring at it while we talked, he told me that the beard came to be because of a case of Chicken Pox when he couldn’t shave!

There you have it, a genuine WatchdogWag Project Exclusive!

Regular readers know that I have given Wolfson his props for playing the game that is Politics 101 perfectly; his donations to everyone running for every office from both major parties was politically savvy and inexpensive considering the dividends that those $250 checks have paid to him; he will serve until term limits boot him or higher office beckons…but I got no vibe at all that the DA’s office for Steve Wolfson was a means to an end such as Attorney General or Governor of Nevada though he would be a natural for either; maybe even Washington too; he knows the back office of politics but is so far, unsullied by it and that in and of itself is noteworthy in Clark County.

The first topic he jumped into was the first Desai hepatitis victim dying overseas and the video media demanding that he comment—he did not—and we were in complete agreement that the stature and gravitas of his office does not equate him talking to everyone about every case or issue the DA’s office handles.

Grand Slam there Mr Wolfson! 

Unlike his predecessor David Roger who fell all over himself whenever a black or brown faced defendant could get his fat little face in the papers and on TV, Wolfson’s ego is there, but is contained—maybe compartmentalized—though ego and ambition are mandatory for any attorney worth his or her salt, neither are sins if one knows themselves and their own limitations which Steve Wolfson clearly does at least as well as he knows his strengths.

That’s rare in political and public life and is one of the qualities I observed long ago within Steve Wolfson.

Next up with him initiating the topic was the Metro Officer Involved Shootings he had just decided on—all three called justified by him and we talked at length about that and the LVMPD—I fully concurred on those and the Henderson melee decisions he made, but I have major issues with one of those LVMPD officers unloading 8 rounds into one guy—and very elegantly without him ever actually saying it, that wasn’t what Wolfson was charged with determining—he had actually dumped that officer and those unnecessary 6 or 7 extra rounds–in a 12×12 bedroom if memory serves me–right onto Sheriff Gillespie’s lap as a ‘training and internal disciplinary issue’ by not media grandstanding or officially commenting on the officer’s literal ‘overkill’.

This is a very smart man.

<–This little fella was sentenced Tuesday to 150 years in prison for selling bottled water on the Strip, yet he told me he still is a big Steve Wolfson supporter!!!

What the DA and I also agreed about was that his decision about those three OISs was easy and that the first time he’ll have to convene a Grand Jury or even escalate an investigation against a Metro officer will not be so easy and that it is coming sooner rather than later because there are functional issues with some officers who just can’t seem to stop firing when perps are already dead or even worse when whatever the subject was doing—or not doing—didn’t need to result in a police execution ala Stanley Gibson or Trevon Cole if certain officers respected human life and properly worked to de-escalate intense situations as they are trained to do, rather than unloading 8 or more rounds into someone.

Keep in mind that this free-flowing conversation is occurring on the sidewalk at 3rd and Lewis, smack dab in the middle of the county’s legal universe and I’m talking to its new Emperor!

As I was listening to Wolfson, I looked across the street and a JEA I know (Judicial Executive Assistant—they burp, diaper, wipe the tears and snot, and calm the temper tantrums of our judges and are the powerhouses who really run the RJC) spotted me with Wolfson and made the Sign of the Cross and then pointed to him!

<–They thought I had ambushed him when even though I’m pretty tall, I only came up to his kneecap so their misimpression was very funny, but incorrect!!

The next subject Wolfson flowed into was DA office diversity and Wolfson’s candid acknowledgement that the office didn’t look at all like the community it is entrusted to serve; that’s a major policy shift and the new DA deserves credit for looking around the office and recognizing that there was a problem—for example, he has hired the department’s first Indian-American DDA and others from under-represented or completely ignored groups on the personnel roster and all things striving to being equal, that’s a very good thing.

I told the DA that I had noticed that his DDA’s seemed relieved and empowered rather than paranoid and stressed out and that he deserved kudos for working to change the culture and atmosphere at the District Attorney’s office which was totally enveloped by poison under the hyper-racist and corrupted David Roger.

<—Former Clark County DA David Roger takes a moment to enjoy a snack outside of LVPPA headquarters!

Most in the DA’s office are delighted, if not giddy, that David Roger is gone and appear to be giving Steve Wolfson a chance to get his sea-legs and he has very wisely not taken an axe to the former corrupted regime’s players but more a scalpel and patience letting them earn their reassignments or terminations by their own misconducts.

Again, this is a very smart guy!

I felt comfortable conversing with him this past Tuesday—ironic because I was at the RJC at the invitation of his office—so I asked his thoughts on a matter of a good friend who got screwed by David Roger and was having issues with their probation officer because they didn’t know how the system worked having never been in it before.  The District Attorney himself matter-of-factly told me exactly what to do and even immediately guessed the attorney involved when I couldn’t recall.

Gee, a Clark County District Attorney actually interested in ‘justice’ and righting wrongs and respecting and following the US and Nevada Constitutions—and scrupulously requiring his subordinate staff to those ends too!

<–Judge Heidi Almase’s courage (and moxie!!!) in taking on  hyper-corrupted sadist George Assad won her the seat and disinfected and revitalized LV Muni Court and Clark County DA Steve Wolfson seems to be doing the same thing on the County side of things at the RJC!!!

Just as a refreshing and invigorating breeze of reform and justice is currently blowing through Las Vegas Municipal Court since now Judge Heidi Almase leveled hyper-corrupt judicial sadist George Assad, District Attorney Steve Wolfson seems to be having the same effect on the Clark County side of the RJC and for that Mr Wolfson, I wish to encourage and cheerlead you to continue on the path of prosecutorial reform and justice too!

Your challenges are many and your plate is full but I have confidence in you sir, so please don’t disappoint me and 2 million other Clark County residents.

We’re counting on you Steve.

Michael Zahara
8/4/2012
www.WatchdogWag.com