Does a TRO Trump a Domestic Violence Complaint at Washoe County
Credit for photo to This Is Reno
On Tuesday, May 28, 2024, there was a Washoe County Commission meeting all the commissioners and concerned residents were stuffed into the Nevada Public Health Chambers like sardines in oil, the meeting room the Health Board doesn’t even use.
During public comment at the meeting, Ms. Kim Koschmann took to the podium with alleged domestic violence complaints regarding her former boyfriend the Executive Director of a nonprofit, Karma Box Project, running the Nevada Cares Campus Safe Camp. The Executive Director was in the chambers with his attorney. This same nonprofit had an agenda item regarding renewal of their agreement along with RISE and VOA/Veterans of America.
The four female commissioners, Chair Alexis Hill, Mariluz Garcia, Jeanne Herman, and Appointed Commissioner Clara Andriola all voted to support the agreement with Karma Box Project even after the plea of a fellow female. Picon ponders if the female commissioners possess an internalized misogyny, which leads them to believe harmful stereotypes about their own gender. This can manifest as victim-blaming or disbelief towards other women who come forward with allegations of sexual harassment. It was odd none of the four put the breaks on and followed Commissioner Clark’s request to table this for a couple of weeks and do an investigation.
Realizing how bad this might be playing in the court of public opinion, Chief Deputy District Attorney Mary Kandaras commented that an investigation could be asked for. Now, no one thought the scope of this investigation would be so very narrow by the county and only focused on the Safe Camp. The county does what the county does to protect itself and that is what led us to this article.
Traveling back in time to April 2021, then Assessor Mike Clark sent out a package filled with public records, he thought people should see. Every document in the package is a public record, most are part of court cases over a number of years.
When these packages started to arrive at various movers and shakers businesses and homes, all hell broke loose. Clark included a photo of a tattoo of a Washoe County employee, formally a City of Reno Government employee and this individual had sent the photo to employees at the City of Reno, which is how it ended up being included in the City of Reno lawsuit and marked as an exhibit, McKissick v. City of Reno, 3:17-cv-00458. The county employee was deposed about the photo as part of the lawsuit in 2018, filed by former City of Reno employee against the city. The City of Reno lost and was ordered to pay $300,000 in 2019.
What did Clark receive? A Temporary Restraining Order. The employee neglected to remember this photo was part of a lawsuit from 2018, and, we guess, forgot they were deposed. The employee indicated they were afraid and asked for a Temporary Restraining Order against Clark. They had no knowledge of how Clark could have gained access to the photo. Now we get it, a photo like this would make us uncomfortable too, if it just showed up but this is part of a public record, deposition, and court case. We find it interesting that the TRO application is not signed by the employee but instead DA Mary Kandaras the very person who suggested the investigation of the Executive Director of Karma Box Project on May 28th.
There was a hearing, in part due to the Reno Whistledown package as it was called, on June 30, 2021, and while being examined by Clark’s attorney Mark Mausert the employee had an epiphany and remembered the photo was part of the lawsuit in 2018, and in fact did know where it hailed from. It was odd that Clark’s attorney Mausert was also the same individual who handled the deposition of the employee as part of the lawsuit back in 2018, so he got to ask about this photo more than once over a few years.
Clark had mailed a package to Larry Chesney, Picon’s publisher. We’ve read it and viewed the tattoo photo. What we found questionable is the photo clearly has a yellow “exhibit” sticker in the upper right-hand corner. These are all photocopies, it was part of the package, and there is a case number on the exhibit sticker. How did DA Kandaras miss the exhibit sticker and neglected to ask the employee about it, or had the document been photoshopped by the time Kandaras saw it and there was no exhibit sticker? It is something to ponder. We understand Clark has asked and no one in the DA’s office will show him the photo nor answer if there was an exhibit sticker.
Picon tracked down the Temporary Restraining Order* for our readers to digest. Clark met with the District Attorney’s Office in 2024 to get answers, and he feels they just want this to “go away.”
In 2016 when then Commissioner Vaughn Hartung was found guilty of violating sexual harassment policy with a Washoe County employee, he had to take an online class. So why would Clark be banned from the Washoe County Complex due to a public record tattoo photo being sent.
Clark has commented that this was all done to keep him off the ballot in 2022 but as he said, “I can’t prove it.” The employee who got the TRO against Clark is also someone who was supported by former Commissioner Bob Lucey and Hartung in a bid to become the Washoe County Manager in 2019.
Why are we writing this now? Clark made a complaint, he was not treated fairly by Washoe County in 2021 and the county hired Simons Hall Johnston’s Sandra Kenter to investigate, and the outcome was Washoe County had done no wrong.
Fast forward to 2024 and Sandra Kenter was retained from Simons Hall Johnston to investigate the Executive Director of Karma Box Project.
Clark was the only commissioner who voted against approving the agreement for Karma Box Project on May 28th. Clark is the commissioner talking to the press, and forwarding the emails he receives from other individuals coming forward regarding their interactions with the Karma Box Executive Director. Clark forwarded the email from Lisa Lee who outlines that she had discussed past difficulties with the Karma Box Executive Director with Alexis Hill in 2020 and again 2021 after she was elected.
Picon is pointing out these repeat performances.
Shouldn’t the county possess a pool of more than one law firm to call to handle these types of investigations?
*Public records from the Washoe County Justice Court can be found at:
img20240523_15152149 by documents on Scribd