LAS VEGAS -- Just when you thought it couldn't get any nastier between county commissioner Steve Sisolak and his ex-girlfriend, former Henderson city councilwoman Kathleen Vermillion. It did.
A jaw-dropper came after a Metro Fiscal Affairs meeting when Sisolak addressed cameras claiming Vermillion tried to extort nearly $4 million out of him yesterday. But Vermillion's team has fired back with its own press conference.
News 3's Mackenzie Warren's broke the story and she's tracking all the details. Mackenize, what can you tell us?
Commissioner Steve Sisolak says he was blackmailed but Vermillion's attorney, Rob Martin, says the $3.9 million figure was thrown out as a settlement claim and not as extortion.
The backdrop to all this is a five-year relationship between Sisolak and Vermillion that ended last October.
The supposed ammo unleashed by the Vermillion camp late this afternoon -- a three-minute video it claims shows a relationship that's too close and inappropriate.
To be very clear - it does not allege any illegal activity between Sisolak and Vermillion's young teenage daughter.
Sisolak says he was shown a similar video and was told it would be leaked and his political career ruined, if he didn't pay the $3.9 million. Sisolak today turned to metro claiming extortion.
There’s even more background to this. Last week an employee at Vermillion's Partnership for Homeless Youth claimed she was mishandling money.
He filed a complaint with the Nevada’s attorney general. Vermillion, then fired back suing Sisolak, claiming he leaked a drug test of she had taken in an attempt to embarrass her and jeopardize county funding for her charity.
Last week, Sisolak denied doing anything of the sort. He called the whole episode, and Vermillion's charges, "sad."
And there's more to this story in this tangled web of Clark County politics.
Mark Fiero, the public relations person fighting for Vermillion, previously represented the Clark county Firefighters. These are the very same firefighters who got in Sisolak's crosshairs last year over sick-leave abuse and big salaries.
