GUEST
Ben Botkin, Reporter, Las Vegas Review-Journal
BY MARIE ANDRUSEWICZ -- It’s only a matter of time before the Las Vegas Constable’s office is abolished, but the tenure of John Bonaventura appears to promise scandal until the bitter end. Currently he’s facing lawsuits from three former employees.
“You have one former female deputy suing the constable with allegations of sexual harassment, and two other officers in the constable’s office who have filed wrongful termination lawsuits alleging that they were demoted and later fired because they refused to go to a commission meeting to lie on the constable’s behalf in connection to a reality television show,” says Las Vegas Review Journal reporter Ben Botkin.
Bonaventura at first denied participation in a reality show about his office, yet following this denial appeared to allow a production crew from California tape his staff at work.
The woman who is suing for sexual harassment says she also was pressured to participate in the reality show.
“In that case you have a former female deputy whose allegations include things such as the constable allegedly told her that he wanted her to wear a miniskirt and garters to work,” says Botkin. “His office later pressured her to star in this reality show. After she refused, then she was later dismissed. She was also pressured, she alleges, to dump her boyfriend.”
That lawsuit is the latest in a long series of complaints against the constable’s office, including a deputy who overlooked a body during an investigation, and the hiring of employees with questionable backgrounds.