LAS VEGAS (AP) —Nevada’s former state prisons director alleged Friday that before forcing him to resign more than a month ago, aides to the Democratic governor now seeking reelection wanted him to reshape accounts of a convicted bombmaker’s escape that went unreported for four days.
Gov. Steve Sisolak’s chief-of-staff, Yvanna Cancela, responded by accusing ex-state Department of Corrections chief Charles Daniels of attempting ``a political shakedown for more than $1 million taxpayer dollars`` with a threat of going public and filing costly and time-consuming litigation.
Sisolak press aide Meghin Delaney provided a copy of an Oct. 28 letter from Daniels’ attorney, Craig Marquiz, to state officials seeking ``an amicable solution’’ amounting to seven years’ worth of Daniels’ $150,000-per-year salary, or $1.05 million.
Otherwise, the letter said, Daniels planned to file age and racial employment discrimination claims with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a possible federal lawsuit. The letter identifies Daniels as ``an African-American male executive within a protected age class who was forced to resign under duress.’’
Daniels resigned Sept. 30. He stood Friday with Marquiz in front of a federal courthouse in Las Vegas and read prepared remarks that Daniels said were a response to ``statements which have defamed me and eviscerated my distinguished and faithful career on both state and national levels.’’
Daniels described, in time-of-day detail, what he said happened after he and other top prison administrators were informed Sept. 27 that Porfirio Duarte-Herrera had escaped up to four days earlier, Sept. 23, from a medium-security facility outside Las Vegas. Duarte-Herrera was sentenced to life in prison for a fatal Las Vegas Strip casino parking structure bombing.
Daniels said he refused instructions from a top legal aide to Sisolak to change a timeline about the escape ``to make it consistent with the media’s facts.’’ He did not specify elements of what he called ``a narrative that was knowingly false.’’