Jeff German: Outgoing Las Vegas official arrested over murder of journalist he blamed for election loss

A Las Vegas official has been arrested over the fatal stabbing of investigative journalist Jeff German, whom he allegedly blamed for his recent election loss.

Robert Telles, a Clark County public administrator, was arrested after the Las Vegas police conducted searches at his home and taped off the property on Wednesday, Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

"The suspect in the homicide that occurred on 2 September 2022 has been taken into custody," officials said in a statement on Twitter.

The 69-year-old journalist was found dead outside his home in the city on 3 September, with investigators believing he was fatally stabbed in an altercation the day before.

German had spent the last few months reporting on Mr Telles, a Democrat who failed in his bid for re-election in June’s primary after the newspaper published a series of stories about him.

Mr Telles was accused by his former employees of creating a hostile work environment and having an “inappropriate relationship” with a staff member, according to German's reports.

After he lost his re-election bid in June, Mr Telles hit out at the journalist for his reporting on Twitter, calling them "lying smear pieces".

"Looking forward to lying smear piece #4...I think he's mad that I haven't crawled into a hole and died," Mr Telles wrote on Twitter.

In surveillance video, an unidentified suspect was seen on video wearing a straw hat, gloves, and an orange long-sleeved shirt. The police said they were looking for a 2007 to 2014 red or maroon GMC Yukon Denali vehicle in connection with the killing.

German’s employer, the Review-Journal, said its reporters spotted Mr Telles at the journalist’s home last week and a car matching that description in the driveway.

Police arrived at Mr Telles’s house, located less than 6 miles from where German was found dead, and blocked off nearby streets on Wednesday morning.

The administrator was interviewed during the searches once he returned home after 2pm local time wearing what appeared to be a “white hazmat suit”.

A GMC and another vehicle were towed from the property and the area was cordoned off with yellow tape.

Following the searches, the administrator was "wheeled out of the home on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance" in the evening.