You want a good conspiracy story? Female Las Vegas judge pressured to resign after investigation of underage prostitution ring, and now has "committed suicide"

[Dan Druff]

I am not a big believer in conspiracy theories, as usually they are the product of crackpots trying to make connections where none really exist.

However, if you're going to look for a good conspiracy story, you need look no further than Las Vegas.

Vegas was mob-controlled until the 1990s. During the mob days, the justice system was notoriously corrupt, and this was especially possible because Las Vegas was a relatively small city which was geographically isolated from everything else.

After the corporate bean counters rapidly replaced the mob about 30 years ago, many things changed very quickly. Some things improved, others got worse, as you'd expect when greedy bureaucratic (but mostly lawfully acting) companies replace organized crime syndicates.

However, I can tell you as someone who lived in Vegas for 8 years, has been regularly visiting for decades, and ingrained myself in locals culture there, plenty of corruption still exists in Vegas. The justice system just does not seem right to me, and it seems that nobody important wants to ask the right questions.

I've heard a lot of stories from people over time. Some involve bribery of judges -- both with sex and money. Some involve "connected" defense attorneys who can perform miracles for the accused. Then there was the bizarre story of the entire justice system seemingly conspiring to get Robinhood702 jailed for being a pain in the ass. And we know what happened to poker community member Raymond Davis, accused of sexual relations with a teenager, whose bail was inexplicably raised to $500k from $25k, simply because he was a little bit rude to the judge.

There's also a shocking lack of curiosity sometimes involving Vegas law enforcement. Over 5 years later, we still haven't learned Stephen Paddock's true financial situation, despite it being the worst mass shooting in US history, and despite the fact that his finances might have been a motive. And remember when Bobby Baldwin's son BJ shot a guy dead in self-defense in the In-N-Out Burger parking lot at 2:15am, 15 minutes after the place closed? BJ didn't call police, and instead went to his dad, and they informed police later in the morning. All got wrapped up in a nice little package. Nothing to see here. I do believe BJ was attacked first and fired in self defense, but his story as to why he was there (and as to why these two guys showed up with guns) always smelled like bullshit.

That's why when I read the incredible story I'm about to tell you, I can honestly say that I believe something very wrong happened. And for those of you who like conspiracy stories involving pedo rings, well... this one is right up your alley.

Read on... I'll start the story in the next post.

[Dan Druff]

Shane Valentine is a bad dude.

He was a Las Vegas pimp with a long rap sheet regarding violent crimes. In 2016, he got into a beef with another young man named Nehemiah Kauffman. Apparently Kauffman was also a pimp, and they were disputing over territory. On October 8, 2016, Valentine shot into the home of Kauffman's mother, where he believed Kauffman lived. He also rammed his car into her garage. Nobody was hurt, but Valentine was arrested and convicted for the crime, and sentenced to 72 months in prison.



However, before police could arrest Valentine for that crime, Kauffman was murdered, along with a girl named Sydney Land. The murders occurred on October 27, just 19 days after Valentine shot into Kauffman's mom's home.



For reasons nobody understands, the cops have never attempted to charge Valentine with those murders, and they remain unsolved more than 6 years later. This is despite the fact that Valentine abruptly changed his phone number on October 28 at 12:40am, less than 24 hours after the murders of Kauffman and Land. Apparently Valentine was a suspect for several months, but shortly after his conviction for the October 8 incident, suddenly police claimed he wasn't a suspect any longer.

There have long been rumors around Las Vegas that Valentine became a police informant -- something the cops won't confirm or deny.



Valentine attempted to get parole in 2019. Sydney Land's mother started a petition to get his parole denied, but it went nowhere. Indeed, Valentine served only half of his sentence, and was paroled in July 2020.

Valentine was alleged to have done his recruiting of underage prostitutes through a clothing store in Las Vegas called Top Knotch. It was located in the Chinatown district of Las Vegas, on Spring Mountain Road. He even started his own clothing store after getting out of prison, and got a PPP loan for it during COVID.

Most notably, Valentine was believed by some to be specifically recruiting underage daughters of important figures in Las Vegas law enforcement, presumably believing that the potential embarrassment of the parents might save him from prosecution.

There were some people who were working to stop Valentine. Now one of them is dead, supposedly of "suicide".

Continued next post...

[Dan Druff]

Melanie Andress-Tobiasson was a judge in Las Vegas. While there were some minor complaints against her regarding her conduct at work, her career was otherwise normal and non-controversial.




That all changed when her daughter Sarah went to work at Top Knotch, and was lured or coerced into underage prostitution by Valentine, who was seemingly always there despite no ownership of the store. Her mother Melanie found out about this, and Sarah confessed that she was "terrified" of the violent Valentine, whom she said used Top Knotch as a front for both prostitution and an underground underage nightclub.

Melanie Tobiasson went vigorously after Valentine, attempting to get him shut down. She went to the cops in 2015 shortly after discovering Valentine's crimes, but instead of being taken seriously due to both the major allegations and her position as a local judge, she was blown off. The cops did not seem particularly interested, and there seemed to be no progress investigating Valentine.

When she learned of the October 2016 double homicide, and Valentine's shooting at the home of one of the victims just 19 days earlier, she was especially furious. She felt that if the cops had listened to her about Valentine's underage prostitution operation, he would have been in prison, and these two murders would not have happened.

When the cops seemingly had little interest in either the prostitution matter or Valentine's involvement in the murder, she went to the FBI. You'd think that would be fine, but apparently that really infuriated Vegas police. The cops started an investigation against Tobiasson, and got a warrant to track her phone. They claimed that she "interfered with a vice investigation" and "failed to comply with and uphold the law, and allowed family interests and relations to influence her conduct".

While the exact issue with her going to the FBI was never fully understood, some think that perhaps she had inside knowledge of Valentine due to her position as a judge, and maybe told the FBI that he was a police informant.

In any case, the complaints against Tobiasson led to an attempt to remove her from the bench.

In the meantime, Tobiasson bought burner phones and contacted Sydney Land's mother, and told her that Syndey's murder was likely committed by Valentine. This started Land's mother to go on a campaign to have Valentine arrested and imprisoned for the murder -- one which is still going to this day. Connie Land also made a complaint that the double homicide was strangely missing from the LVMPD's "unsovled homicides" webpage, at which point it magically appeared there.

Tobiasson also contacted Michelle Leavitt, another judge whose underage daughter was being pimped out by Shane Valentine. She also got a hold of two Las Vegas Metro Police officers, also whose daughters were apparently targeted for Valentine's stable of underage girls.

Tobiasson attempted to contact the press for assistance, but was having a difficult time because she was still under investigation for her activism. In some cases, she developed a bad relationship with reporters who wanted to tell the entire story, as she attempted to pressure them to leave out details which could harm her at the removal trial.

She also went after Valentine herself. Tobiasson is alleged to have told Valentine's lawyer that she will "take care of him myself" if he dared called her daughter again. She's also alleged to have once kicked in Valentine's door, and to have started associating with known organized crime figure Anthony Danna.


So what happened to Tobiasson? Read on...

[Dan Druff]

In May 2021, Tobiasson decided to give up and resign as a judge. She made a deal with the state of Nevada that she would both resign her position and agree never to hold any sort of judicial position in Nevada in the future.

In return, they dropped the ethics investigation against her, which could have put her in prison.

"I have been vilified, lied about and accused of wrongdoing, when in fact what I did was appropriate and should be applauded,” Tobiasson told the Review-Journal at the time. “I’m resigning because they have terrorized and lied about me for three years.”


On Friday, January 20, 2023, Tobiasson died from a gunshot wound to the head. The following day, police reported it was a suicide. Her death occurred just weeks after her divorce was final.

Tobiasson told reporters in 2018 that she wanted them to "get the whole story on tape" in case she was murdered to keep her silent. Does that sound like someone who would kill themselves 5 years later?

It is possible that Tobiasson felt she had lost everything. At age 55, her career was in shambles, the man who had pimped out her daughter (and probably murdered two other people) was roaming free, and there was some strange law enforcement refusal to attempt to investigate the full scope of Valentine's crimes, or the murder itself. Now she was divorced, as well, and perhaps she felt she had little to live for. Perhaps she felt that both Valentine and the Las Vegas police had beaten her, and the situation looked hopeless.

But perhaps it was something different. One day is pretty quick to determine a gunshot to the head was suicide, wouldn't you say?


Fortunately, this story is picking up steam. It's now in the NY Post, Daily Mail UK, and several other major publications. Maybe this will finally get the attention Shane Valentine has long deserved, and maybe he will finally end up behind bars for those murders.

One thing for certain is that Melanie Tobiasson would still be alive today if the police had done their jobs.

[Dan Druff]

As a side story, Michelle Leavitt, whose daughter was also pimped out by Valentine, was under a corruption investigation involving a matter related to Top Knotch.

Marlon Brown was the owner of Top Knotch. He was never charged with any wrongdoing regarding the occurrences there, though one has to wonder why the business owner escaped any sort of culpability. However, in an unrelated matter, Brown was accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend in the leg. Leavitt was the judge on the bench in the case! She clearly should have recused herself because of a clear conflict of interest (given that she knew it was at Brown's business where her underage daughter was pimped out), but she did not. Instead, she sentenced Brown to 45 years in prison for the shooting, and according to Brown's attorney, went through a lot of effort to cover up the conflict of interest in having her judge this case.

There was a corruption investigation, but Leavitt was ultimately allowed to stay on the bench.

After the discovery of the conflict of interest, the sentence was vacated, and Brown was given a new trial outside of Clark County.




Leavitt is the daughter of Myron Leavitt, who served as Nevada lieutenant governor from 1979-1983.

[LIONINSIDE]

Leavitt is the daughter of Myron Leavitt, who served as Nevada lieutenant governor from 1979-1983.

Jason Leavitt is a high-ranking LVMPD Detective who played a major role in the investigation, and was also the one to approve/sign-off the 'Criminal Investigative Report of the 1 October Mass Casualty Shooting.'

The Leavitt family draws a lot of water in this town.

[Sloppy Joe]

I am not a big believer in conspiracy theories, as usually they are the product of crackpots trying to make connections where none really exist.

However, if you're going to look for a good conspiracy story, you need look no further than Las Vegas.

Vegas was mob-controlled until the 1990s. During the mob days, the justice system was notoriously corrupt, and this was especially possible because Las Vegas was a relatively small city which was geographically isolated from everything else.

After the corporate bean counters rapidly replaced the mob about 30 years ago, many things changed very quickly. Some things improved, others got worse, as you'd expect when greedy bureaucratic (but mostly lawfully acting) companies replace organized crime syndicates.

However, I can tell you as someone who lived in Vegas for 8 years, has been regularly visiting for decades, and ingrained myself in locals culture there, plenty of corruption still exists in Vegas. The justice system just does not seem right to me, and it seems that nobody important wants to ask the right questions.

I've heard a lot of stories from people over time. Some involve bribery of judges -- both with sex and money. Some involve "connected" defense attorneys who can perform miracles for the accused. Then there was the bizarre story of the entire justice system seemingly conspiring to get Robinhood702 jailed for being a pain in the ass. And we know what happened to poker community member Raymond Davis, accused of sexual relations with a teenager, whose bail was inexplicably raised to $500k from $25k, simply because he was a little bit rude to the judge.

There's also a shocking lack of curiosity sometimes involving Vegas law enforcement. Over 5 years later, we still haven't learned Stephen Paddock's true financial situation, despite it being the worst mass shooting in US history, and despite the fact that his finances might have been a motive. And remember when Bobby Baldwin's son BJ shot a guy dead in self-defense in the In-N-Out Burger parking lot at 2:15am, 15 minutes after the place closed? BJ didn't call police, and instead went to his dad, and they informed police later in the morning. All got wrapped up in a nice little package. Nothing to see here. I do believe BJ was attacked first and fired in self defense, but his story as to why he was there (and as to why these two guys showed up with guns) always smelled like bullshit.

That's why when I read the incredible story I'm about to tell you, I can honestly say that I believe something very wrong happened. And for those of you who like conspiracy stories involving pedo rings, well... this one is right up your alley.

Read on... I'll start the story in the next post.

Good stuff, and yes, what the fuck is behind the Paddock secrecy? Sadly mass shootings are not uncommon but that one was especially memorable given all the variables in play.

[Small_Banana]

Great story. I think you can make a lot of money if you tell these stories on YouTube. There are many channels that do this type of storytelling. You don't even have to show your beautiful face.

[Dan Druff]

Below is my guess regarding what went on in this situation. Keep in mind that I have no inside information on this case, and am strictly going on what I've read in various news reports, combined with my own analysis. The below narrative is only assumption, and not necessarily fact.

========================================

I believe Valentine is indeed a police informant, and agreed to be one shortly after his conviction. Recall that he was involved with pimping underage girls -- a fairly big problem in Las Vegas -- and I'm sure vice detectives would have loved to get an "in" to that world, so they can largely eradicate the problem. Once they nailed Valentine for shooting inside Kauffman's mom's home (where fortunately nobody was hurt), and having him possibly over a barrel regarding the subsequent murder of Kauffman and Land, they probably figured they had their shot with getting a valuable informant working for them.

I don't think the police care much about Kauffman himself. He wasn't as violent as Valentine, but he was still said to be pimping underage girls himself, which was how he and Valentine likely got into their beef. Nobody's going to cry too hard when a guy like that gets murdered. Pimpin' ain't easy, and all that. Obviously Sydney Land's death was more of a tragedy, but again police probably chalked it up to bad things happening when you associate with bad people. Land was apparently Kauffman's girlfriend. The bottom line is that the cops probably saw Kauffman as a completely unsympathetic victim, and Land as collateral damage. They probably felt that there was more societal good in turning Valentine into a snitch than solving the Kauffman/Land murders. Additionally, it's possible there wasn't a slam dunk case against Valentine for the murders, and he might beat it, anyway.

So let's go by this theory here, and say that Valentine was turned into informant. He had already been sentenced to 72 months in prison for his other crimes, but they could assure he'd get paroled after 36, and he could still be valuable as an informant from prison.

Enter Tobiasson. She interjected herself into the situation in 2015, but became more of a problem after Valentine became an informant in 2017. This basically ruined what the cops were trying to do with Valentine, and it was pissing them off. It's also possible that Tobiasson got access to Valentine being an informant due to her position as judge. Either way, it seems that the cops were telling her to leave it alone, and Tobiasson was demanding action against Valentine for both the underage girl pimping and the murders. Tobiasson was taking privileged info to the FBI (again, potentially ruining Valentine as an informant), and also riling up various others to interfere with the situation, including Sydney Land's mom, and fellow judge Michelle Leavitt. Cops felt that Tobiasson was utilizing her position to basically interfere with the vice department's usage of Valentine, and she wouldn't stop when asked to leave it alone. This led to their attempt to remove her from the bench, which eventually succeeded, especially because Tobiasson somewhat lost control of herself.

By 2021, this entire matter essentially ate Tobiasson alive. Valentine was out and roaming free, the cops clearly were not interested in prosecuting him further, and her career was over. Even worse, the stress of the entire situation destroyed her marriage, and her husband filed for divorce. After the finality of the situation with her marriage, in late 2022, Tobiasson felt completely defeated and felt as if she had lost everything. I believe she took her own life, and was not "Episteined" by the powers-that-be.



Interestingly, despite some apparent bad behavior on the part of law enforcement, it does not seem like this was a situation where Vegas power and influence came into play. In fact, it was the opposite. In the 1980s, Valentine would have been grabbed by the mob and buried in the desert somewhere. Here he seems to have gotten away with pimping the underage daughter of two cops and two judges, and perhaps the children of other important Vegas figures. This was actually a case where the individual families harmed were basically ignored, in favor of what was seen as the greater good (getting a view into the world of underage prostitution in the city). This seemed to be the case of a woman who thought she had a powerful, influential position, and a good relation with law enforcement, essentially ignored and told to shut up.

[Tellafriend]

and he got a ppp loan. jfc we are so doomed.

[ReformDorm]

However, I can tell you as someone who lived in Vegas for 8 years, has been regularly visiting for decades, and ingrained myself in locals culture there, plenty of corruption still exists in Vegas. The justice system just does not seem right to me, and it seems that nobody important wants to ask the right questions.


Read on... I'll start the story in the next post.

You're spot on Todd, still very corrupt.

There was a longtime felony Judge in Vegas, his name was Donald Mosely. He was known to the defendants as extremely tough on them. If he sentenced you to probation he would warn you that any violation at all that came back before him would always result in him throwing the book at you. No matter how minor. His probation terms were extremely tough and hard as well and many defendants got violated.

Anyways, I heard from a reliable source that a defendant in front of him on serious gun charges and other felonies was given an OR(Release on Recognizance) from jail because this inmate could help Mosely with some testimony in his custody battle or something. I don't remember all the details as it's been over 10 years but this guy was an acquaintance of 1 of his kids and Mosely gave this guy huge breaks and special treatment for his help to Mosely to testify that Mosely's ex-wife was unfit and a bad mother. In exchange for testifying that he was a witness to some bad behavior of Mosely's ex-wife, Mosely let him out on O.R and gave him a very lenient sentence.

And just to be clear, Mosely was 1 of the toughest Judges, especially when it came to guns so for him to release this guy without having to pay bail on those serious charges when for every other defendant he was setting 6 figure bails, totally corrupt. I think he was investigated numerous times bv the Nevada Judicial Discipline committee for ethics violations and retired abruptly 11 years ago while he was under another investigation.

My point though is Todd is so right, if there's 1 Judge like this there are a lot more and it's a known fact that even today the judicial system in Vegas is definitely corrupt. Probably more than any other city in the US.

[tigerpiper]

These are both educated professionals with relatively high paying and respected jobs and both their daughters end up getting pimped. Jesus.

[Entropy]

Get used to this kind of third world insanity, the future will be much worse.

I knew things were pretty bad but damn...