The assessor in Nevada’s Washoe County has been barred from all county buildings — including his own Reno office — after he sent dozens of people an unsettling package of documents.
The county’s request for a temporary restraining order against Mike Clark was approved on May 25, the Reno Gazette Journal reported.
Neither the county manager’s office nor the assessor’s office would elaborate on the reason for the restraining order, but Clark himself told the Gazette Journal it was because of a packet of documents, accusing specific officials in Reno and Washoe County of “political skulduggery,” that he sent to 162 recipients.
Clark called the restraining order “an absolute outrage,” telling the paper, “They violated my First Amendment rights.”
He said that the documents had been left anonymously on his desk and that he found them worthy of passing along.
The packet included a photo of a Washoe County official in a swimsuit. “The content … was replete with innuendo that she used her sex to advance her career,” the temporary protection order stated, according to the Gazette Journal.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for June 10.
Clark, a real estate broker and a Republican who campaigned as a “tax protester,” has served in the elected office since 2015. He held off a Democratic challenger with a 0.2% margin of victory in 2018, and his current term expires next year.
He has not been suspended from the post, though he said he has been ordered not to speak to any of his staff members or other county employees.
