The Las Vegas office workers who drove ruthless journalist Jeff German to write the story that got him murdered by his ‘monster boss’ have spoken out in an emotional interview.
In September 2022, Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative journalist Jeff German was found dead with seven stab wounds to the neck and torso after a neighbor discovered him lying behind bushes in his yard.
German, 69, had written an article exposing Democratic lawmaker Robert Telles, 46, for bullying behavior and having an affair with a woman who worked for him, and the evidence would be published just hours before the murder.
The story was based on testimony from whistleblowers who worked under Telles during his tenure as Clark County’s elected public administrator.
“If I were to talk to him today, I think the first thing I would say would be, ‘I’m sorry,'” complainant Aleisha Goodwin said through tears while speaking German in an interview with C.B.S..
German was found stabbed to death outside his home on September 3 after he reported extensively on Telles’ public office and his allegedly inappropriate relationship with an employee.
German, 69, had written an article exposing Democratic lawmaker Robert Telles, 46, for bullying behavior and having an affair with a woman who worked for him, and the evidence would be published just hours before the murder.
“If I were to talk to him today, I think the first thing he would say would be, ‘I’m sorry,'” complainant Aleisha Goodwin said through tears while speaking German in an interview.
“We couldn’t believe he would even take a call from us, but he did.”
Goodwin described feeling “desperate” when they decided to call German to report Telles’ behavior.
Jessica Coleman added that they were “scared every day” and said German was “the only person who tried to do something who specifically put his name on the line to try to do something.”
“It was just survival, one step in front of the other,” Rita Reid described.
“He did something for us and fought for us and is 100 percent our hero,” Coleman, another of the complainants, said in the interview.
“Jeff German was guided by an innate sense of right and wrong,” “If he knew someone was engaging in criminal activity, unethical activity, inappropriate behavior… he wanted to do that story.”
Reid previously described the immense sense of guilt he felt in an interview with Inside edition.
“He heard our story and felt it had merit, but he didn’t promise any story,” Reid said of German, adding that he told her he would “take a look at everything.”
“It was just heartbreaking,” Reid said.
Aleisha Goodwin had originally contacted German in March 2022 to describe the problems she and her coworkers were facing with their nightmare boss.
According to prosecutors, Telles allegedly entered German’s side yard at 11:18 a.m. on Sept. 3 and waited five minutes before the reporter came out of his room.
home.
Surveillance footage showed a suspect wearing gray shoes and a straw hat, which were later found at Telles’ home. Telles claims that all evidence was planted
The Las Vegas Democrat claims he was set up just as he was working to expose a scam being investigated in the county.
When German left, he was immediately attacked and stabbed to death.
Metro police have since said they discovered Telles’ DNA on German’s fingernails, saw his car near the victim’s home near Tenaya Way and Vegas Drive, and collected the suspect’s clothing and viewed a street camera in the house of Telles.
Telles, however, claims that all the evidence is either coincidental or has been intentionally used in a plot against him.
“As far as the vehicle goes, there is a vehicle that looks like mine,” he told 8NewsNow. ‘As for any other evidence, as to when it might have been planted, I couldn’t say.
‘Once again, I know it’s an incredible story. But that’s the story,’ he insisted.
Telles was booked into the Clark County Detention Center and pleaded not guilty to murder charges six weeks later.
The former legislator is now awaiting trial, scheduled for March 18, 2024.