Investigation into ouster of Brooks cost $95K

An investigation that led to the unprecedented ouster of former state Assemblyman Steven Brooks cost Nevada taxpayers nearly $95,000.

Documents from the Legislative Counsel Bureau show the state owes $66,715 to a Las Vegas-based attorney with the Greenberg Traurig law firm, and it paid $27,793 to The Advantage Group, a Reno investigative firm.

State officials said they had initially hoped to pay about $45,000 for the lawyer in the probe. The investigation aimed to determine the rationale and ramifications of kicking Brooks out of the Assembly.

Brooks’ expulsion, which was the first ever for a Nevada state lawmaker, took place March 28. Lawmakers cited investigators’ 900-page report on Brooks as evidence that he was unfit to serve his constituents.

Some said they felt unsafe with Brooks in the legislative building after his months-long streak of bizarre behavior that included arrests, paranoid statements and posing shirtless for a newspaper article.

Just hours after the emotional expulsion vote, the 41-year-old representative from North Las Vegas was arrested in a police chase and confrontation along Interstate 15 in Victorville, Calif.

Brooks remains jailed in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and is scheduled to appear in court Friday. He has pleaded not guilty to resisting an officer, felony evading, and assault on a police animal, charges filed after his California arrest.

Earlier this month, Brooks was denied enrollment in a mental health court program, which could have allowed him out of jail and held him accountable for keeping on track with mental health treatments.

San Bernardino County prosecutors argued against putting him on probation.

Meanwhile, Brooks faces other cases in Nevada.

He was indicted last month on a felony charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. That charge, which stems from a January arrest in North Las Vegas after he purportedly voiced threats against a fellow legislator, alleges Brooks shouldn’t have had a gun because he was an unlawful marijuana user.

He also was charged with a felony and three lesser counts in a Feb. 10 arrest that came as police responded to a domestic disturbance involving his estranged wife.

Brooks’ lawyer, Mitchell Posin, said the California case needs to be processed before the Nevada cases can move forward.