Horace Langford Jr. / Pahrump Valley Times - Attorney Nancy Lord speaks to Nye County District Attorney Brian Kunzi during a March 25 meeting where county commissioners voted to reprimand Tax Assessor Shirley Matson, seated, over her racist emails.

By Matt Ward

Nye County Tax Assessor Shirley Matson and her attorney Nancy Lord filed court papers last month asking a local judge to overturn the reprimand handed down against her by county commissioners in March.
A petition for judicial relief filed by Lord in Fifth Judicial District Court on April 22 argues that Matson wasn’t allowed to defend herself, wasn’t allowed to question witnesses, that doctored emails were introduced as evidence of conduct unbecoming an official and that the reprimand was prepared in advance of the hearing, and therefore was arbitrary and capricious.
County commissioners were served with the petition last week.
The court has not yet ruled.
Asked for a comment regarding the petition, Lord said she was no longer commenting on the Matson matter.
The tax assessor did comment, however. She said she was forced to file for relief. She said the petition is the first step before she files a lawsuit.
“I had to do it. I can’t let them treat me like that,” she said.
The Pahrump Valley Times was the first to expose emails the assessor sent to sheriff’s officials that questioned the immigration status of construction workers building the county’s new jail. These emails alone got her into hot water with commissioners, who found that she violated county policies.
But, the PVT also obtained private emails from Matson’s time as a candidate for assessor when her rants against “filthy, illegal” Mexicans were among the most vulgar. Matson defended herself vociferously — at first she claimed that she made those comments because of personal experiences with illegal aliens while she was a San Diego resident. Then, she said that despite the racial nature of her comments, she isn’t a racist — evidenced by her Hispanic son-in-law. Finally, of course, her defense was that the emails the PVT published were somehow doctored.
A letter to the PVT from her lawyer is coming, she says, though today she won’t talk about her stance on illegal immigration with the media.
“Oh, I’m not going to go there anymore. I’m not even going to get involved in that. That will get twisted too. And I just don’t want to do it. Hopefully, we’re getting a letter out to the PVT and all the things they say I said. There were many, many things in there that I never said,” the assessor told the PVT on Tuesday.
Shirley Matson has become a local hero of sorts to those on the right. Shortly after her hearing in front of the commissioners, a Las Vegas radio show had her on and she received numerous supportive calls from listeners who, frankly, agreed with her racist rants. Similarly, numerous supportive comments streamed in from readers online both at this newspaper’s website and in other venues.
Readers might be surprised at one person who doesn’t support Shirley Matson.
Her daughter.
Brooke Matson, 33, the one married to a Hispanic man — they were divorced last year after 10 years of marriage — talked exclusively with the PVT on Tuesday. She said she felt “compelled” to call the newspaper.
Why? Because she and Shirley’s other daughter, who will not be named in this story, haven’t spoken to their mother since 2008 — because Shirley’s daughters didn’t support her stance against the 2008 stimulus package, Shirley cut them off.
“She called me on that day a number of times (in February 2008). When she’s angry like that, my sister and I have asked her repeatedly not to call us when we’re at work. So she left me a series of voicemails that I did not return, of course, because they were so hateful,” Brooke said.
Brooke found out that her mother invoked her and her sister while defending her emails after Googling Matson last week.
“We had our last falling out, which is really just my mom being angry with my sister and I, saying ‘I don’t want you in my life, you’re dead to me, you’re losers, you’re terrible children.’ So I hadn’t had her in my life in a couple of years. I am just naturally curious about what she’s up to, so I will Google her once in a while.
“I Googled her the first part of this year or the end of last year and saw that she had run for the tax assessor position and that she had won. And then last week for some reason, I was kinda bored, I Googled her again and saw this article (from the PVT) and saw that she referenced these run-ins, or life situations, with regards to illegal immigrants, Mexicans, calling out my ex-husband and calling out other things, like the defecation on my lawn, my sister’s car accident that caused her to go into bankruptcy. None of those things are true,” she said.
Brooke says she is speaking out because she believes her mother should be held accountable for misrepresenting her relationship to her daughters.
“Given the history with my mom and how she treated my sister and I, I didn’t call to be vindictive or stir the pot, or get back at her — I can’t lie, there is a small part of me inside where there’s a little bit of that — but the bottom line is she holds a public office and she’s blatantly lying. She will say forever and a day that she is not a racist. In my opinion, she is a racist,” Brooke said.
Confronted with some of what her daughter told the PVT, Shirley asked where the PVT got that information and then refused comment.
“You know what I think you are stretching, sorry, I will just talk to you later,” the assessor said before hanging up.
Shortly before this story was set to go to press, Brooke said her mother had already attempted to contact her and that “there are already repercussions” because of her talking to the press.
Brooke attempted to retract her statements. The PVT refused because not only was Brooke a credible source, but she had ample opportunity to withdraw her comments. She was interviewed by two reporters on four occasions.
“My mom sent a lot of really, awful, awful emails. Things you would never say to your children. . . . I just truly felt that she is not mentally healthy,” Brooke said.
Shirley Matson sees it differently.
“I guess people just want to be mean. I’ve never met so many mean people,” she said on Tuesday.