An ugly and politicized twist has been taken on the tragic loss of a student at college due to a boxing match.
This story is a bumpy ride so buckle up for your tour into…
Nevada: the most partisan government I’ve ever seen.
Before we get to the political grave-robbing and grandstanding on the preventable death of a college student, and before we discuss the shotty reasoning the current Sheriff and Trump-backed candidate for Governor was called upon to resign, let’s start at the beginning.
The now-suspended chapter of the University of Las Vegas fraternity Kappa Sigma held an annual “Fight Night”, reported to be styled as a Fight Club-themed event, on Nov 19. Nathan Valencia, 20, died from brain injuries four days later. Eyewitnesses report that Valencia fell unconscious while fighting and the amateur referee let the fight continue. Valencia then took blows to his head, leaving him defenseless. However, the verdict of the coroner was that Valencia died by homicide. This does not automatically mean that he is guilty.
Nevada state law exempts the Nevada State Athletic Commission from oversight for competitions “exclusively” involving students and conducted by schools, colleges, universities, and associated organizations. This means that the annual charity event was unregulated, and safety precautions that are generally required for commission-sanctioned events were neither requisite nor implemented. Since then, the Athletic Commission has invoked its authority to request written permission from it for any future charity contests and exhibitions.
As you can imagine, the likely-avoidable loss of life and hindsight vision has created grief, anger, and legal battles including a civil suit filed by Valencia’s family claiming wrongful death against the university, the fraternity, the amateur referee who officiated, and the venue that hosted the fight.
Political Sparring
The fight for the nominations is changing and each contender has political ambitions during this election cycle. First, let’s look at some of the key players involved.
- Commission Chairman Stephen J. Cloobeck is an appointee of NV Governor Steve Sisolak (D), who is currently running for re-election. Cloobeck, who spent over $100,000 on this year for Democratic political campaigns in the United States, is also a significant donor.
- Current Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo is the Republican challenger for the Governor’s office.
- Aaron Ford (D), Nevada Attorney General, is running against Sigal Chattah. Ford’s campaign received contributions from Cloobeck.
- Clark County District attorney Steve Wolfson (D), is up for reelection against Timothy Treffinger. The case was never referred to DA’s office but Commissioner Cloobeck is sure to clear him of criticism to the local media, anyway.
Every named official who has played an important role in the aftermath to the tragic boxing match also invested personally in the results of partisan elections. Because they were all elected to those positions, this is not surprising. It becomes problematic when the public functions they perform become political soapboxes.
It’s important to note that everyone named is a Democrat except the Sheriff who is running for Governor on the Republican ticket– so, If they were to assign blame, on whom would you place it?One Republican.
On Tuesday, the Athletic Commission responded to a 158-page investigation report about Valencia’s death from the Attorney General’s office. The report concludes that a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (Metro) statement made last December indicating that no crime had been committed was too definitive and “premature”. According to the report, “This statement completely foreclosed the possibility of any future prosecution — regardless of any additional investigative findings.”
Personaly, these are questions that I have. The intent is a consideration in criminality, and it can’t be concluded that anyone intended for Valencia to lose his life. Even though it was an accident of some sort, it was not one that should have been.
Legal separation of duty and morality
Recalling a tragic incident in Florida where teens video-recorded and laughed as a man drowned, instead of seeking to aid him in any way– the teens were not charged because no statute that requires them to act in the preservation of another’s life. Was their behavior morally questionable? Absolutely, and both the Florida Attorney General and police condemned the teens’ behaviors, but they couldn’t conclude criminality. CNN reported law enforcement’s statements:
Florida does not currently have any law that requires citizens to call or render assistance for someone in need. “If there was (a law like that) we would charge them,” Cocoa Police Department spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez told CNN by phone. “The family is frustrated … the detectives are frustrated, that we cannot hold anyone accountable for this,” Martinez added. “No one deserves to go like that.”
“We don’t have anything criminal resulting from that incident,” Martinez said. “Our detectives were trying to get potentially if a negligence law could apply. The state attorney advises it doesn’t meet standard for a criminal charge.”
“We are deeply saddened and shocked at both the manner in which Mr. Dunn lost his life and the actions of the witnesses to this tragedy,” the state attorney’s office said in a statement. “While the incident depicted on the recording does not give rise to sufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution under Florida statutes, we can find no moral justification for either the behavior of persons heard on the recording or the deliberate decision not to render aid to Mr. Dunn.”
There is one significant difference when comparing cases: the teens hoped and expected that Florida’s drowning victim would die. It may seem immoral, but they did not have a statutory obligation to do so. Human beings that are kind and helpful. There was a lot more intent in the fatal outcome of the drowned man than can be levied against anyone regarding the boxing match fatality. This was not what anyone wanted.
AG’s Report
Cut back to Nevada: the AG’s report didn’t conclude that there was any criminality, either. Just that the police made a statement that they didn’t find criminality earlier than the AG would have preferred them to. The report then imagines that the statement had barred all prosecution. This is absurd and probably disingenuous. If we had someone come out and say, “I intended for the death to occur and/or took actions to ensure it”, bet your butt Metro would send that over to the DA’s office for prosecution. The assertion in this report is false and I believe it to be hyperbolic.

Governor Sisolak (D) responded to the AG’s report by commending the work of… just the Democrats, and not his political opponent. Nevertheless, they still believe that there are no Democrats to blame. According to the statement,
The Governor is grateful for the efforts of the Attorney General, Nevada Athletic Commission and others on this crucial topic.
Athletic Commission’s Kangaroo Court Proceedings
During Tuesday’s meeting, an athletic board commissioner asserted that “this was an illegal fight, an underground fight.” No, it wasn’t.The event was an annual school-sanctioned charity event. All of the other events were followed. non-rulesAnd Imagine imaginary protocolsSo says the commission Think carefullyDespite being required year after year. Yet, the commission somehow found the power they had always wanted to require written permission for such an event. Only one body in all of the United States is responsible for ensuring that boxing matches are not ended in tragedy. It happens to be The Athletic Commission. The Sheriff, however, is a Republican so proceedings are a witch hunt.
Metro agreed to requests to be “participatory” on the issues raised, giving assurances during the hearing. Representatives of the department were often under verbal attack, instructed by Cloobeck that he didn’t want “no Bull****”.
During the hearing, Cloobeck had the audacity to ask Geordan Logan, the attorney for the fighter opposite Valencia, Emmanual Aleman, to turn over his client’s boxing gloves suggesting he should do so on Wednesday, the next day. Aleman is not a defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit and was never asked by any law enforcement agency or the Attorney General’s office to turn over his boxing equipment. This kangaroo court has unilaterally decided that Aleman’s council should give over property that has never been formally requested, per their whims, without a warrant, or any kind of process his council would be accustomed to operating in compliance thereof. It’s highly irregular, in an open public meeting, for an appointed commissioner to ask an attorney to turn over their client’s property, immediately. This request must be presented to a judge and show cause. Motions can also be filed. You know what the important thing is? due process of the law.
It would be far too difficult for the Athletic Commission, which is not authorized to pursue criminal justice, to ask for murder investigations or to determine what casually needs to collected as evidence in response to their informal request. 158 pages later, the Attorney General’s office concludes that someone else needs to keep on investigating because the initial investigation and their investigation of that investigation require more investigation. You got it.Cloobeck, and the commission, must have figured that this meant they had been deputized. They should then turn public meetings into mock trials.
Cloobeck took the nothing burger of “investigation of the investigation for more investigation” to also conclude that the Sheriff should resign, immediately. No, not for anything having to do with Valencia’s death, but because the Sheriff is running for Governor, after holding a non-partisan office– which apparently to Cloobeck means the Sheriff has Go partisan for coco puffs
Cloobeck spoke out in an odd rant to 8NewsNow about his absurd thinking.
Murphy: What would you say to critics who say You are making this politicalYou attack the sheriff right away?
Cloobeck: “Because the sheriff decided to run for governor and make it political. Ask him. Ask him. The sheriff’s always been non-partisan. He’s now running an institution as a partisan … it’s a non-partisan job.
He’s supposed to be non-partisan, I hope that he can wear different hats, like when goes on the campaign trail, he puts his little ‘R’ hat on and goes, ‘Trump, Trump, Trump,’ and does that kind of nonsense. When he was running Metro, however, he put on the non-partisan mask. He has even built a Chinese wall. I don’t know, ask him.”
Don’t say Chinese
It is unknown what Cloobeck meant by telling the public that Sheriff Lombardo “has a Chinese wall.” It seems he, himself, doesn’t know what he meant. Cloobeck’s assertion seems so random and casually racist, but it is also veiled in meaning. This story has already been so absurd that no one knows how to follow the Chinese wall angle.
It’s worth noting that one time Nye County Commissioner Donna Cox said that the Governor’s wife, Kathy Sisolak, was “Chinese” and questioned if she was profiting from pandemic-era policies. There was immediate backlash, local headlines, and all the Democrats went rabid calling her ‘racist’ and rebuking her comments as ‘vile’.
Cox claimed,
A few months after his win, he got married to his wife. Now how long he’d known her I have no idea, but She is Chinese. And you put two and two together … they actually said that her family in China own a company that’s making a lot of money off of this issue. That she’s here in the United States promoting and selling all these masks and emergency equipment and everything, and they’re all being shipped over from China.
Cox was raising concerns about a conflict of interest and called Kathy Sisolak “Chinese”, ethnically. That’s because she is. It’s because she is. Governor’s official website describes Kathy’s father saying, “Her father was the first Chinese dealer on Fremont Street.” So, while everyone used colorful language to describe Cox’s naughty behavior of, Chinese pronunciation there were No statements were made regarding a possible conflict of interests regarding pandemic-era policies and Kathy’s business dealings.
All we learned is that nobody can say, “Chinese”, unless you’re the Governor, then you can put it on your official website. The fact that Cloobeck made the allegation of having a “Chinese wall” (whatever it means) and no opportunistic outrage followed just shows there are two sets of rules.
Our state is not home to the racist and disgusting comments made against Kathy Sisolak, our First Lady. Nevada’s Home means Nevada to everyone in every community. This type of intolerance, racism and bigotry is unacceptable from elected officials. https://t.co/pK0967EHvW
— William McCurdy II (@WillMcCurdyII) August 10, 2021
Step Right Out of Stage
The rest of Cloobeck’s rants are just a bunch of made-up rules that aren’t applicable in our elections codes, thus misleading voters about what partisan and non-partisan offices entail. Cloobeck is free to create rules, but they should be school-sanctioned and more complicated than a permission slip. Otherwise, don’t count on passing the blame to whoever is on the wrong side of the aisle when unregulated boxing, goes wrong.Cloobeck, pick a battle.
There is one voice calling a spade a spade and it’s Elizabeth Ray. Lombardo for Governor Spokesperson replied to these outrageous antics with the following:
“Just like his boss and political godfather Steve Sisolak, Stephen Cloobeck is using his government position to do Sisolak’s political bidding. Although the Sisolak Administration may be the most corrupt in Nevada’s history, it is disappointing that these pay-to play, greasy antics have seeped into the Nevada Athletic Commission. Frankly, it is an embarrassment to our state … but fortunately, when Joe Lombardo is governor, he’ll clean it up. Maybe that’s why they’re working so hard to protect their power.”
Metro released a statement after the hearing calling it “unprofessional and unproductive.” That’s one way to say it. Here’s another: It’s an absolute mockery that there is a mourning family and a lawyered-up fight-night participant being used as a political pawn, while the public is subjected to belligerent outbursts, expletives, and midterm partisan playbooks. It’s gross.
Nevadans: Please vote more.
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