LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Metro and the Clark County District Attorney failing to do their jobs. Those are among the accusations that were flying in Tuesday morning's contentious meeting of the Nevada Athletic Commission.
The commission was discussingthe Attorney General's final report on the Kappa Sigma Fight Night event, a charity fundraiser put on by the UNLV fraternity that resulted in a student's death last November.
The discussion about the boxing event turned into a sparring match that Las Vegas Metropolitan police called "unprofessional and unproductive."
It quickly became a blame game as verbal punches were thrown in the tense and emotional hearing.
The bottom line for Athletic Commission Chairman Steve Cloobeck? He believes Metro--Sheriff Joe Lombardo in particular--broke a promise to properly investigate 20-year-old Nathan Valencia's death.
Kappa Sigma's fight night was billed as an amateur boxing match for charity.
Nathan Valencia, a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at UNLV, was matched against Emmanuel Aleman of Kappa Sigma in the ninth fight of the night.
It was billed as the main event.
Immediately after the event, Valencia appeared to be in distress and was unable to stand as the winner of the fight was announced.
He collapsed and spectators called 911. Valencia was taken to Sunrise Hospital by ambulance. He was placed on life support and died four days later of a reported brain bleed.
"This is an underground fight, for all intents and purposes, where they were charging at the door, taking money, completely unregulated, running wild," said Nevada State Athletic Commission Member Anthony Marnell III.
Chairman Steve Cloobeck said, "This didn't have to happen. I got the call over Thanksgiving holiday. I was away with my family and my heart literally dropped to the floor. And then I get the video of the honor walk of this young man not making his 21st birthday. Sad. It's disgusting. We immediately put an emergency order in place. We immediately looked to take control of a situation that we thought others should have taken control of."
Cloobeck didn't hold back--getting passionate and occasionally using expletives to convey his frustration with Metro.
"Metro did not ask the right questions," Cloobeck said.
He also personally called out Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson and Sheriff Joe Lombardo.
"Are you aware that he (Sheriff Lombardo) said he would do a thorough investigation in a phone call that I had with him in late November?" Cloobeck asked LVMPD Deputy Chief Jim LaRochelle, who represented Metro at the NSAC meeting.
"And then I spoke with the D.A., Steve Wolfson," Cloobeck continued. "He said, 'Give him a chance.' And I did at my commission hearing in December and he (Lombardo) doubled down. He didn't open up an investigation. Ask him why! I gave him a softball. Steve Wolfson asked me to give him a softball. I did. Those are the facts."
Cloobeck told LaRochelle that Metro failed the Valencia family and the entire community.
"We'd like you to do the right thing and do your job. Can you please just do your job, please?"
Metro has consistently said its investigators did their jobs.
And though Valencia's death was ruled a homicide, it was a sports-related accident with no criminal intent.
Metro sent a statement saying:
"LVMPD disputes the findings of the Attorney General’s Investigative report. After the initial event, LVMPD communicated in a timely manner with UNLV Police, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and the Nevada State Athletic Commission. From LVMPD’s preliminary investigation, and after discussion with the District Attorney’s office, it was determined there was no criminal intent. If the Attorney General has probable cause to believe the Athletic Commission’s regulatory statutes were violated, or any criminal violations occurred, they have investigative and prosecutorial authority to pursue the matter."
When questioned by Cloobeck in Tuesday's meeting about whether a homicide investigation was conducted, LaRochelle said, "We did not do a murder investigation because we did not have criminal charges."
In the report, Nevada's attorney general wrote, "Law enforcement statements that no crime had been committed were conclusory and premature, and compromised any possible future prosecutions."
Both Chairman Cloobeck and the Nevada Attorney General's office believe police can't claim they didn't have criminal charges because they failed to do even a basic crime scene investigation that would have included evidence collection of the boxing gloves and hand wraps used by Valencia's opponent, Emmanuel Aleman.
"How about somebody coming into an arena with their hands pre-wrapped--no one knows how they were wrapped--and gloves that were not inspected or gloves that were not used by anyone else?" Cloobeck asked.
The state A.G.'s report also says Metro failed to investigate whether either fighter had an unfair advantage over the other due to performance enhancing or illicit substance use.
"Was there a liquor license there that night?" Cloobeck asked. "Because people were drinking and allegedly doing cocaine."
As 13 Action News has previously reported, the referee was allegedly drinking while in the ring.
The Attorney General's report describes potential cocaine use by the fighters and by Kappa Sigma fraternity members working the event.
To date, no one has even interviewed the other fighter.
Metro says the department is willing to assist the attorney general's office if they want to move forward with any criminal prosecution.
D.A. Wolfson said, as with any case, if law enforcement submits a request for prosecution, his office will look at the merits and decide how to proceed.
But to date, his office still has not received any such request.
As for the bigger picture, Kappa Sigma's fundraiser had been going on for years but commissioners said it took a tragedy to spotlight everything wrong with how it had been organized.
"I can attest in this commission hearing, there are clear violations of Nevada Revised Statute that resulted in a young man's death and should have never happened because people were irresponsible, worked around the system and didn't follow the law. Clearly. Now, whether they had intent to do that or not, I can't attest to that. But those are the facts. So it happened," said Commissioner Marnell.
He believes proper oversight may even have prevented the fight between from happening.
"This issue has been going on in the state of Nevada for decades. And there are commissioners who have fought to change this law for decades, to no avail, through our legislative process," said Marnell. "It's unfortunate this man had to pass away to get there because we should have been there long ago. There were complaints about this forever from this commission to not allow any type of fighting in the state of Nevada under any circumstances without the Nevada State Athletic Commission's oversight. And this is exactly why! And when you read this report, this is a cluster beyond belief from one end to the other on organization, promotion, safety, inspection, drugs, alcohol in the ring. I mean, really? A referee drinking in the ring? This is great. I mean, what are we doing here anyway?"
Marnell continued, "I'm not saying that we ban this type of stuff, but it has to have oversight and regulation because in my opinion, after reading this report and all of the other things, this would have not have happened. And if it did, that young man would have been on his way to UMC in an instant. He would have been going to the right hospital. That's only the only hospital in our city that can take care of a brain bleed."
The attorney general's report suggests other factors were in play. Factors Metro says support Valencia's death as a sports-related accident.
The report says he lost too much weight too quickly leading up to the event. "... Upwards of 15 to 20 pounds to 'make weight' for the fight."
When that happens, the report explains, there is "Loss of water around the brain... Which could have played a part in the injuries sustained by Valencia."
"And it's clear in the medical report and based on the stuff that was done, that this this young man looked like he was having a hard time with even minor head trauma during sparring and training," said Marnell.
Yet another reason Metro cited for not seeking charges in the case.
"How are we going to go out and conduct a criminal investigation when we have experts or other people weighing in that say those type of things?" asked LaRochelle.
In the end, everyone agreed change needs to happen so nothing like this can never happen again.
Center Ring Boxing was to receive the proceeds from the fight, but donated the money to the Valencia family to help with medical and funeral expenses.
No one from Center Ring Boxing, the Sahara Event Center or the fraternity would talk to commissioners or to the media, citing the ongoing civil lawsuit.
Click here to seethe Attorney General's final report.
