The culture of corruption and collusion continues in the Clark County School District Police Department. This according to former officers who now want the district attorney to file criminal charges.
Over the past six months, Contact 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears has been exposing school police misconduct. The latest allegations go right to the heart of the department.
Internal Affairs is the part of a police force that's supposed to investigate officer misconduct and protect the department's integrity.
But the man in charge of school police internal affairs is himself under fire -- accused of lying, threats and cover-up.
Detective Christopher Klemp is the subject of a letter filed today, asking the D.A. to investigate allegations of repeated dishonesty and improper governmental action.
Darcy Spears: How would you describe the atmosphere?
Dan Deresotes: Unbearable. One word. Unbearable.
Former School Police Dispatcher Dan Deresotes echoes the sentiments of the officers who signed the letter.
They say Klemp "Withheld exculpatory evidence in an excessive force case and lied about the contents of internal records."
"It was like a clique of corrupt people against people that were honest," Deresotes said.
One of the officers who signed the letter made an undercover recording in December, 2014 during a meeting with Klemp at a local Starbucks.
Throughout the profanity-laced recording, Klemp discloses confidential information, makes biased statements about officers he's investigating, and instructs the officer he's meeting with to lie under threat of retaliation.
On the recording, Klemp says, "And if something happens and I got to I.A. you, if you say anything about this I'm going to call you a (expletive) liar on the record. And I'll come at you like a whirlwind because I gotta protect myself."
Klemp did not return multiple calls for comment.
No one from the district or school police would go on camera, but they did send a statement saying:
"Mr. Klemp has been reassigned pending the outcome of an investigation. We do not comment on ongoing investigations.
"CCSD takes all allegations seriously and takes necessary steps to investigate. Given the allegations are against the Internal Affairs Bureau, we are working with Las Vegas Metro Police Department to look into the matter."
"Again, given that this matter is still under investigation, we cannot comment further."
D.A. Steve Wolfson confirmed receipt of the letter.
He also sent a statement, which reads:
"The matter is under review. There are a number of allegations that span a lengthy period of time. This requires careful and thorough review."
Contact 13 will follow it all the way through.
One of the investigations Klemp is accused of mishandling was reported by Contact 13 in May.
It involves a cover-up by school police after a department party led to a deadly DUI crash.
