Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty/Courtesy of the Los Vegas Police Department
John Cahill never saw it coming.
In 2018, after serving 12 years as Clark County public administrator, a low-key elected position responsible for securing the estates of recently deceased Las Vegans, Cahill anointed a fellow Democrat as his would-be successor. His choice? A 45-year-old Mississippi-born HVAC technician-turned-probate lawyer by the name of Robert Telles.
Cahill told The Daily Beast that at the time, nobody had flagged any potential issues with Telles. And ultimately, his endorsement of the married father-of-three who had been named Nevada Legal Service’s 2014 “Pro Bono Attorney of the Year” proved fruitful when Telles won the Democratic nomination, and then the general election.