Nevada has no truth in sentencing… or prosecution.

Nevada has a problem with sentencing - it is apparent in the boondoggle that was Jason Brown. Brown was convicted of brutally dismembering multiple dogs and recording it - the evidence was so gruesome that members of the jury cried, and the Judge had to take a break; due to Nevada’s “violent offender” definitions and a mistake, it turns out that Brown was eligible for parole in 2019 despite being sentenced in 2015 to 28 years in prison.

Brown isn’t the only outlier, but sometimes the issues occur during sentencing and not after. Today we’re specifically looking at the cases of David Wilcox and Paul Gardner. Wilcox might ring a bell for you; he was arrested in 2021 for cutting holes in port-a-potties at the 2021 Reno Rodeo, and then filming men urinating through the holes he had cut. Per detectives he had dozens of clips of male genitalia on his phone when he was arrested. Later, he was hit with 61 separate charges for filming his victims at the Rodeo.

Paul Gardner is another individual to pay attention too. In 2021 police started investigating Gardner for installing a hidden camera in his home bathroom to film guests using the toilet, shower, and changing; police say there is evidence that points to Gardner targeting a specific live-in employee from South America.

The cases of Wilcox and Gardner are very similar, but different. Both are cases of ‘peeping’ utilizing digital recording devices. There are differences. Wilcox targeted over 60 men at the Reno Rodeo in an area where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. Gardner allegedly targeted one individual at his home, though, in a place where this is a reasonable expectation of privacy. Wilcox had dozens of victims. Gardner had one. This is where things start to not make sense.

In April of this year Gardner was sentenced to serve 1,456 days in the Washoe County jail - almost four years; because of how he was sentenced, that time will, in-fact, be served at the Washoe County jail and he will not be taken into the Nevada Department of Corrections. Typically for sentences over six-to-twelve months, inmates are taken in by NDOC, but because of how Gardner was charged and sentenced, he will be serving multiple shorter sentences, one right after another, and so on.

Justice served, right? Maybe not so much; with Gardner sentenced for peeping, what about Wilcox? Did he get a similar sentence, or maybe even a harsher one because of the number of victims? No.

Despite a dishonorable discharge due to a prior felony, Wilcox was sent to an ‘early case diversion program’ and spent a year in a specialty court before failing out. He was then sentenced to 32 months in prison, but the sentence was suspended and he was instead given probation.

This is a very explicit example of the Washoe County District Attorney cherrypicking cases to lean into. For some reason they leaned on Gardner and pursued a heavy handed sentence, but they let Wilcox off easy. We have one individual off the streets for now, but we also have one individual back out in our community.

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