Summary: A Las Vegas attorney is facing multiple felony counts for allegedly giving at cellphones to inmates at the Clark County Detention Center.
Alexis Plunkett, a criminal defense attorney in Las Vegas, is accused of providing inmates with cellphones. Authorities claim Plunkett, 36, gave at least one cellphone to an inmate at the Clark County Detention Center, charging her with multiple felony counts.
The criminal complaint against Plunkett charges that she allowed two inmates at the jail to “possess or control a cellphone.” A judge will decide tomorrow if an arrest warrant should be issued for the attorney. Her attorney, Robert Langford, has filed a motion with the judge for her to surrender to the jail and be released on her own recognizance.
Langford explains, “We’re going to maintain that she was using her cellphone appropriate to the agreement.” Attorneys are allowed to bring cellphones into jails under the agreement of a signed document stating the phone will only be used for purposes related to the case they are there to work on.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Plunkett has been a resident of Nevada for ten years and is in good standing with the State Bar of Nevada. Langford explained that she has a “thriving practice with numerous clients accused of serious felony crimes.” Plunkett faces a total of 12 felony counts of unlawful possession of a portable telecommunication device by a felony jail prisoner and two gross misdemeanor counts of conspiracy. Since the charges, she has agreed to meet with her clients by video conference.
Plunkett represents one of the accused inmates, who happened to be injured during a shooting at the High Desert State Prison in 2014. Andrew Arevalo was shot during the prison shooting that left another inmate dead. He faces similar charges to Plunkett. The other inmate included in the criminal complaint is Rogelio Estrada and Rogelio Estradasalcdeo. He faces one count of conspiracy and four counts possession of a phone by a prisoner.
Authorities state that during a number of visits to the jail in April, she gave a cellphone to Arevalo, who is being held at the jail on $200,000 bail. They believe she provided Estrada with a phone sometime in late April or early May.
In the shooting, inmate Carlos Perez, 28, was shot and killed while he was handcuffed. He was shot by former corrections officer trainee Raynaldo Ramos. Perez and Arevalo were fighting on November 12, 2014. Arevalo was shot in the face but survived. Perez was dead at the scene but the Nevada Department of Corrections did not report his death until the next day. The circumstances of his death were not discovered until four months later when the Clark County coroner determined he died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head, neck, and chest, ruling his death a homicide. Ramos was charged in April of last year for the death of Perez and is awaiting a criminal trial for the involuntary manslaughter charge.
Arevalo has since filed a federal lawsuit against the prison, Ramos, former prison director James Cox, and more.
According to her law firm’s website, Plunkett received her law degree from the University of Arizona James E Rogers College of Law. She worked for public defender offices in Arizona, Colorado, and Clark County. She was granted the license to practice law in Nevada in 2009. She spent several years working in private practice before starting her own firm in Las Vegas. She focuses on criminal defense, civil rights, and plaintiff personal injury litigation. Her site reads, “Her true measure of success is the satisfaction of her clients and the defense of their rights.”
Would you believe the testimony of an inmate over an attorney? Tell us in the comments below.
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