A former public official accused of killing former Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German is again asking for a new judge to oversee his impending murder trial.
Robert Telles, the 47-year-old ousted Clark County public administrator, filed court papers this week accusing District Judge Michelle Leavitt of a “deep-seated favoritism for the Clark County District Attorney and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department that has made and will continue to make fair judgement impossible.”
Authorities have said that Telles stabbed German outside the reporter’s home in September 2022 over articles German had written about his conduct as an elected official.
Telles, who is acting as his own attorney and has pleaded not guilty, wrote in a motion to disqualify Leavitt that the judge’s bias would “very likely cause her to make future rulings that will substantially violate Defendant’s constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury trial.
“Further, this Court’s failure to disqualify Judge Leavitt may be seen as an implicit endorsement of her misconduct, potentially casting additional negative light on the Nevada judiciary beyond the negative light caused by Judge Leavitt’s misconduct,” he wrote in the motion.