State orders Nye County sheriff to address database misuse

State officials have ordered the Nye County Sheriff’s Office to rewrite policies dictating how employees and “top officials” use law enforcement databases, after its sheriff was accused of misusing the state and federal systems.

The Department of Public Safety has determined that sheriff’s office employees made 102 searches in law enforcement databases that lacked the proper documentation about why they accessed people’s private information, according to a letter the department sent to the sheriff’s office.

Sheriff Joe McGill has acknowledged his failures to document why he conducted searches in law enforcement databases, although he has maintained that all the searches were for law enforcement purposes.

He previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that state officials were conducting an audit to investigate over a hundred of his searches since his term began four years ago, as well as searches made by 15 deputies.

The letter, dated Sept. 29, outlines the state’s corrective action plan for the agency in response to the findings in the audit.

State officials are requiring the sheriff’s office to “provide updated policies and procedures that specifically address system misuse by all levels of agency personnel, up to and including top agency officials and the agency administrator,” the letter stated.

McGill said Monday that those policies are still being worked on, and that he received the state’s letter on Friday.

The searches were conducted on state and federal Criminal Justice Information System databases, also known as CJIS.

These databases contain people’s information that is not always public record, including adult and juvenile criminal histories, DMV records, property information and warrants.

Unauthorized searching or dissemination of information from these databases can result in sanctions by state and federal officials.

It also can be a misdemeanor criminal offense, according to state law.

A Department of Public Safety official said in May that although the sheriff’s office was being audited, the agency was not conducting a criminal investigation of McGill, according to a copy of the email obtained by the Review-Journal.

State officials declined to answer further questions on Monday.

The department also is requiring the sheriff’s office to retrain staff on the databases and participate in quarterly meetings with the state.

In addition, the office is expected to conduct internal audits of its records management system and send monthly reports to state officials.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal previously obtained records of emails from sheriff’s office employees showing that one employee told higher-ups she found evidence of database searches related to people who opposed McGill online, local political figures and members of the media.

McGill said Monday that he is still blocked from accessing the databases. He previously said the county’s IT director, Brad Adams, suspended his access in April.

“It’s all up to our IT manager,” McGill said Monday. “I think there’s a possibility that this is politically motivated on his part, and I think my access should have been reinstated a long time ago.”

Adams did not respond to a request for comment.

McGill’s public statements have alleged that the audit was the result of a “political smear effort.”

He has said that many of the complaints that led to the audit came from Pahrump resident John Sorget, who has posted videos online criticizing the sheriff’s office. Sorget has said he received a “slew of threats” on social media referencing private information and his criminal history after writing a post about the office last year.

Sorget has sued Nye County, McGill and Nye County District Attorney Brian Kunzi, alleging that McGill used the CJIS system to access his criminal information without reason and violated his First Amendment rights.

McGill, who is up for reelection in November, previously defended his search for Sorget’s name in the databases but denied distributing his information.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Newberg is a member of the Review-Journal’s investigative team, focusing on reporting that holds leaders and agencies accountable and exposes wrongdoing.