"You’re trying to think of all the what-ifs and what could have been. And if we hadn’t gone to Jeff [German], would he be alive today?” Rita Reid tells Inside Edition. German was allegedly stabbed to death by a local official he was reporting about.
A woman who says she blew the whistle on her boss, former Clark County Public Administrator Rob Telles, is speaking out about the sense of guilt she feels over the murder of Jeff German, the Las Vegas journalist she enlisted to tell her story.
“It was just a heartbreak. You’re trying to think of all the what-ifs and what could have been. And if we hadn’t gone to Jeff, would he be alive today?” Rita Reid told Inside Edition.
Telles is accused of stabbing German to death outside his Las Vegas home while disguised in an orange construction vest and wide-brimmed hat, after German reported on Telles’ alleged behavior in office.
German, a reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, started investigating Telles after Reid reached out.
“He listened to our story and felt that it had merit, but he didn’t promise any stories. He was going to take a look at everything and do his investigation,” Rita Reid told Inside Edition
The result was a series of investigative reports accusing Telles of “bullying” behavior in the workplace, and an alleged affair between Telles and a woman who worked for him. They both denied an inappropriate relationship and Telles called the articles a smear campaign.
Telles also blamed the exposé for his defeat in his bid for reelection last June.
In a jailhouse interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Telles said he couldn’t say how he would plead, because it’s still an “open case.” He appeared in court on Wednesday.
“Jeff certainly didn’t deserve this at all. We were very proud to know him, and we admire his work,” Reid said.
