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Jeff German - by Adam Casarez

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    187958

    • Adam Casarez at Pima Community College
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    We have learned from so many different types of journalists that have been killed or imprisoned for no wrongdoings, but on different topics they covered and the information they had held them accountable for these types of things. Many of their stories were just part of their job, however having such valuable information made them high value targets and consequences that included death, imprisonment, and even torture. Being an investigative journalist comes with many risks, but people who like this work, they love to be involved and place their own opinions on different things and people. While we usually think of journalists' killings and imprisonments happening in China, Russia, or the Middle East, they can happen right here in the United States. Although we already heard about several different journalists, this one will primarily focus on Jeff German, who was an American investigative journalist, he lived in Las Vegas and wrote for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and the Las Vegas Sun.

    Although Jeff German was born in Milwaukee but began his journalist career in Las Vegas and spanned over 40 years. Because Las Vegas is known as “Sin City” German thought that there would be plenty to cover and look for, and he started off his career by writing about casinos and gambling problems. “A Las Vegas betting expert was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in federal prison for running an illegal gambling operation and hiding money from the IRS. Tony Chau, 32, a Vietnamese immigrant who marketed an online wagering system to customers across the country, also was ordered to pay $567,571 in restitution to the IRS and forfeit another $1.4 million to the government.” (German). As his reputation grew, he would start writing and investigative Las Vegas mobsters who found his work extremely corrupt and would often send threats to him about the “false information” that he was writing about.

    The stories he wrote about, and the cases investigated on from the start of his career to about 2010 had been pretty minor, however after, his career took off and he became one of the most well-known journalists in Nevada. He would shift from his low-end writings to bigger things like failures in city inspections before a deadly hotel fire, alleged mismanagement by government officials, and local extremist groups. He then began writing plenty of articles about Robert Telles, who is the man responsible killing Jeff German. German would write articles about Telles, from his sexual assault and misconduct in his workplace, public relationships with coworkers and more. One included: “The re-election of embattled Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles is in jeopardy after a lackluster showing in his primary battle with two Democratic challengers, including his top assistant.” (German). This was because German had written about Telles having an inappropriate relationship with his assistant.

    Primarily, because of all these allegations against Telles, he lost a re-election bid in June 2022, and because of this, Telles’ reputation had gone down significantly, and his work had also faltered. Because of this, Telles had showed up to German’s house, “German was fatally stabbed on September 2, sustaining seven sharp force injuries, including four to his neck and one that cut his carotid artery.” Telles was found guilty, although pleaded not guilty, he was charged for murder and his trial is set to begin in April 2023. Jeff German is a journalist that is not only important to investigative journalism, but to the City of Las Vegas because he was the most respected and well-known journalist there at the time. The stories he covered still are being discussed to this day and will be for the years to come because he never got to finish some of his investigations that left everyone involved with their head scratching what will come next. To me, I think that coming with this career has lots of risk factors that could potentially include death but is not worth it to me because a story to me is not worth a life and although some may disagree, it’s really your choice how you use your voice and if you truly want to be heard enough.

    Works Cited

    “Jeff German.” Committee to Protect Journalists, cpj.org/data/people/jeff-german/. Accessed 22 Nov. 2022. https://cpj.org/data/people/jeff-german/

    “Jeff German Gaming Article Archive | Casino City Times.” Www.casinocitytimes.com, www.casinocitytimes.com/jeff-german/archives/. Accessed 28 Nov. 2022.

    “Jeff German, Las Vegas Investigative Reporter Allegedly Slain by Local Official, Spent His Career Chasing “Mobsters, Wise Guys and Killers.”” Www.cbsnews.com, www.cbsnews.com/news/jeff-german-killed-las-vegas-reporter-spent-career-chasing-mobsters-wise-guys-killers/. Accessed 22 Nov. 2022.

    Smith, Emily. “These Are Some of the Stories Jeff German Wrote about Robert Telles.” CNN, 8 Sept. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/09/08/us/jeff-german-robert-telles-stories/index.html.

    “Remembering Jeff German.” Las Vegas Review-Journal, www.reviewjournal.com/tag/remembering-jeff-german/. Accessed 22 Nov. 2022.

    This page titled Jeff German - by Adam Casarez is shared under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Adam Casarez at Pima Community College.