Lance Gilman’s Personal Vendetta.

Why would a guy who has pretty much accomplished everything he has set out to do become fully engulfed in a white hot laser focus to destroy Sheriff Antinoro? Why would he resort to every underhanded trick to not simply get him out of office, but to break this man to the point of crushing him as a man? To answer that question, we only have to do one thing; follow the money.

On June 12th we will (most likely) elect our next Sheriff.* While other important races are on the ballot, none has been more discussed that the Sheriff’s race. Sadly, like the last three Sheriff elections, this race has been chock full of non-stop mudslinging at Gerald Antinoro. And this unending drama has been a carefully planned and executed vendetta from one of northern Nevada’s most powerful men

This Editorial does not ignore or endorse the behavior of Gerald Antinoro.

Rather, it is a critique of the motivations behind the tactics of Storey County Commissioner, Mustang Ranch Brothel Owner, TRIC executive, Blockchains, LLC Government Relations Executive and Exclusive Real Estate broker, and double wide Bunkmate of Jennifer Barnes-Milsap and Kris Thompson.

Leonard “Lance” Gilman has waged a fight to the death with Gerald Antinoro. This battle began 5 years ago and has sunken to such depths and subjected the good people of Storey County to such turmoil, chaos and unrest as to evoke vile disgust and bone-tired weariness of the entire matter. At a time when we all thought Lance and his team couldn’t stoop any lower, they have outdone themselves in tragic fashion over the past several months.

Just Doing My Job, Boss.

In the age-old tradition of “Team Storey”, Gerald Antinoro was appointed Sheriff by retiring Sheriff Jim Miller Jr. The Modus Operandi of “Team Storey” is to select the successor after he has kissed the ring and pledged allegiance to the team. Lance Gilman contributed $1000 to Antinoro’s first election campaign after his appointment. It was the beginning of a long friendship, so Gilman thought. The prospects of business as usual were firmly bought and paid for. Or so Lance thought.

Soon the headwaters of this death match began to trickle. The Storey County’s Brothel Ordinance requires the Sheriff oversee the operation of the Brothels within the county.  And it became abundantly clear that, unlike Miller and other Sheriffs before him, Antinoro had read the ordinance and was prepared to enforce it. All of it. And the enforcement of the law would end up costing Gilman millions of dollars because Gilman doesn’t pay close enough attention to the brothel ordinance.

Work card enforcement became a problem for Gilman. The Mustang regularly put employees to work and then applied to the Sheriff’s Office for a work card as a formality after they started. Prostitutes, bartenders and anyone else who sets foot on the brothel who isn’t a customer needs a work card, and all of these folks were used to starting work first and filling out the work card application second. However, the ordinance requires the work card to be approved first. And the Sheriff began to enforce this pesky detail.

The work card issue continues to plague Gilman. All of the issues brought before the Brothel Commission in the last two years have been work card related. I’ve looked at the application and it is pretty straightforward. The applicant should know before they submit it if they won’t pass muster. But apply they do, and deny the Sheriff does. Just like the ordinance requires.

Not following the Brothel Ordinance Can Be Expensive

Nicole Barde has been doing a spectacular job of reporting on the aroma of Storey County politics since 2015. Her reporting is unique in that she attends nearly every meeting and reports on the proceedings with clarity and separate commentary. While I tend to editorialize, she separates the church of opinion and state of fact quite well. From her December 12th article:

Unfortunately for Lance Gilman, Sheriff Antinoro doing his job meant the closing of the Mustang Ranch because Antinoro’s background check found that Gilman had failed to disclose a “partner” on his brothel license application. Tom Gonzales was that partner. Gilman lost money while the brothel was closed. Around the time that the brothel was reopened Tom Gonzales sued Lance Gilman for breach of contract and won for a settlement of $1.9 million. Gilman appealed that ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court and lost a second time.

 The Nevada Supreme Court decided against Lance Gilman’s (Cash Asset Management-CAM) appeal to overturn a prior Courts ruling in favor of Tom Gonzales (TG Investments-TGI). In losing that case Lance was ordered to sell the Wild Horse brothel (now part of Mustang) and pay Tom Gonzales $1.9 million for breach of contract and a lack of good faith and fair dealing.  Lance appealed and the Supreme Court ruled against him. What was interesting to me was the following statement in the document:

“Further, the jury could draw reasonable inferences from the evidence offered that CAM failed to fight

The revocation of the license and CAM influenced the amendment of the brothel ordinance and sought the revocation of the license in an effort to void its obligations to TGI. Thus, there was sufficient evidence supporting the jury’s verdict that CAM breached the contract and the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”

This makes it sound as if Lance Gilman, et al, were manipulating the system for their own benefit.  I feel that this is the same tactic being used for the recall. But that’s just me.

You can find the 2016 ruling HERE. Lance Gilman lost even more money thru this action. Does he blame the Sheriff for these losses?

Also from the bardeblog.com article:

“Further, the jury could draw reasonable inferences from the evidence offered that CAM failed to fight

The revocation of the license and CAM influenced the amendment of the brothel ordinance and sought the revocation of the license in an effort to void its obligations to TGI. Thus, there was sufficient evidence supporting the jury’s verdict that CAM breached the contract and the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”

Lance Gilman, Kris Thompson and the Ministry of Fake Truth

Two days after Trump beat Clinton, Lance Gilman launched his next attack against Sheriff Antinoro in the form of the ill-fated recall effort. As Gilman’s right hand explained in an interview with KOLO:

“After having success in the first two phases of the recall process, we are now entering Phase III of the recall effort – which is the campaign for the recall election, which should be held in the coming weeks,” Thompson continued. “We will be focusing on the key reason for the recall, which is Antinoro’s need to abuse his power and intimidate and push people around using his badge as a political weapon. This has resulted in repeated acts of sexual harassment, mistreatment of women, skyrocketing budgets, and ethical problems with the Nevada Ethics Commission. Antinoro is the last remaining vestige of the “old way” of doing business in Storey County,” said Thompson.

From where many people sit, it is Antinoro who is the lone ranger standing tall against “Team Storey” and the “old way of doing business.” Saul Alinsky would be proud of his protege Kris Thompson. The article continues:

Spokesman Kris Thompson says, “To totally eliminate the concern about Antinoro’s bogus claim, Gilman and TRI are taking aggressive action here to reassure voters that the recall has nothing to do with protecting Lance, the Mustang, or TRI. Nothing at all. These actions by Lance and TRI are unprecedented in Storey County and confirms what we have been saying all along, we are here to have the back of the voters who Antinoro has pushed around, intimidated, and mistreated and nothing else. It’s about helping the people in this County who’ve had our back for 16 years,” Thompson said.

The contribution report filed weeks before the recall election proved that Kris Thompson and Lance Gilman are masters of Fake Truth. Read the above statement closely. They are pushing around, intimidating and mistreating the Sheriff in the name of protecting the gentle voters of Storey County. We wrote about the recall extensively. Read the articles in March and April for a refresher course on the failed recall effort.

Using Innocent Children To Attack Antinoro

The Teller requested public court documents surrounding the custody of Laura Antinoro and the father of their daughter. Reading the notes of the case is telling that althought Lance himself was not named as directly involved, Mrs. Antinoro’s ex-husband was referred to Gilman for financial assistance. Kris Thompson, Maggie Mahan (yes Shawn Mahan’s wife), Jennifer Barnes-Milsap, Stuart Handte, and even Melanie Keener provided direct and material assistance to the father in an effort to personally harm Mrs. Antinoro. Both Thompson and Mahan are employed by Gilman, so his involvement is clear. The father, who had not seen his daughter in nearly six and a half years and had ignored his child support of the child, only became interested in seeing his daughter once connecting with Gilman and Thompson.

Using the child to harm the parents is particularly concerning and speaks their character. That they will do literally anything to injure anyone close to the Sheriff is despicable.

Kris Thompson, Lance Gilman, Jennifer Barnes-Milsap, Maggie Mahan, Melanie Keener, and Stuart Handte should be ashamed for using an innocent child to get at the Antinoro family. File this under S for Sickening.

Teaming up with the Democrats to Smear Laxalt

Storey County Republicans should not ignore the fact that Gilman has sided with Democrats in Las Vegas to team up against Antinoro. Although Gilman and Thompson claim to be staunch Republicans, they have thrown themselves directly into the laps of the Democrats who are lining up to take swipes at Laxalt using Gilman’s accusations. Laxalt may lose the election thanks to Gilman’s deal with the Democrats. The list of articles from the liberal news site the Nevada Independent shows the extent that Gilman is willing to sacrifice Laxalt in order to smear Antinoro. The television ads airing all over the state are not designed to impact voters in  lil’ ol’ podunkistan Storey County, they are intended to punk Laxalt statewide. Any registered Republican should file this under S for shady.

The June Primary; (Way) More Of The Same

That brings us to today. Those of us unfortunate enough to be on the Virginia City Highlands Email Chat Group have been subjected to the verbosely vile and venomous vitriol of Kris Thompson and his freshly untethered (and unhinged) Karen Woodmansee. These two have gleefully related what can only be characterized as desperate last-minute efforts to convince the 883 people who voted to retain Sheriff Antinoro just 15 months ago.

Check the site and review the chatter if you have the stomach for it. Gilman’s employee Kris Thompson hovers over his keyboard to provide verbose smackdowns to anyone with the temerity to support the Sheriff.

Those efforts include the following:

Feeding The Nevada Independent with Anti-Antinoro press releases and stories so the Indy can carry Gilman’s water. The Nevada Independent was launched in part from a $250,000 donation from TRIC anchor tenant Switch. Switch Founder Rob Roy and Lance Gilman are close friends.

• Don Norman’s plea to Laxalt to investigate Antinoro
• A story on Melanie Keener’s suit against Storey County and Sheriff Antinoro
• A hit piece on Laxalt and Duncan for not un-endorsing Antinoro
• Another hit piece on Laxalt and Duncan for not un-endorsing Antinoro
• Feeding the fire with the Democrat Gubernatorial Candidate Debate
• Another Laxalt hit piece for not un-endorsing Antinoro
• Ripping Antinoro for backing out of Breck Greninger’s BBQ
• Slamming Wes Duncan for not un-endorsing Andinoro
• Questioning Laxalt’s office to see if they really are investigating Antinoro
• Breaking the last minute news about a filing of a grievance from a Storey County Deputy

Are We Done Yet?

On June 12th those of us who have not voted early will cast our ballot and this latest episode of Gilman’s deathmatch will be behind us.

However, Lance Gilman will not rest until his personal vendetta against Gerald Antinoro has completely broken our Sheriff. Not just as a Law enforcement professional, but as a human being.

We The People Stand Between Gilman and Antinoro.

We alone will decide the outcome.

Please show up and vote on June 12th.

Hasta la Victoria Siempre!