Las Vegas NowI-Team: Son of Former Clark County Commissioner Arrested in Drug Bust

I-Team: Son of Former Clark County Commissioner Arrested in Drug Bust

The son of a former Clark County commissioner is in custody, along with his wife, after police found an array of drugs in a Henderson home.

Eyewitness News was first on the scene as police searched a home where Brian Atkinson Turner was living.

He is the son of former Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates and stepson of District Court Judge Lee Gates and he is already under investigation related to hundreds of thousands of dollars he received from his mother's campaign funds.

Brian Atkinson Turner was not happy to be caught on camera as he sat handcuffed in the back of a police car. A few feet away, his wife Kathryn O'Gara seemed equally uneasy following the couple's arrest on multiple felony counts.

The saga began Tuesday afternoon when Metro received a phone call from a motorist about a possible DUI. The eyewitness reported that a female driver was swerving all over the road and that an unrestrained child was in the front seat.

The caller followed the DUI suspect to this home in Southern Highlands and used a cell phone to direct police to the location. After hearing a child screaming inside the house, officers entered and spotted several types of narcotics and drug paraphernalia and squalid conditions. Inside the car, they found a loaded gun. Other detectives were called in.

Metro's Bill Cassell said, "As they were waiting for those two units to arrive, the second suspect, Brian Atkinson Turner, returned to the house and he is identified as the father of the child. He lives or resides there. He was also arrested on one count of felony child endangerment based on the state of the house and the fact there was a loaded handgun in the car with the child and the child had access to that weapon and was unrestrained in the car."

The I-Team's camera recorded officers bringing out what appeared to be an expensive lighting and ventilation apparatus, believed to be part of a hydroponic growing system. Sources close to the investigation say officers found a so-called "grow room," typically used to cultivate marijuana.

"It's my understanding that [the] original officers that entered the house found the child in close proximity to narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia," Metro's Bill Cassell continued.

This is not Turner's first drug-related arrest. He was arrested in October 2003 and November 2004 for possession of drug paraphernalia. Both times the charges were dropped.

A warrant was issued for his arrest in May 2005 for felony charges of passing a check with intent to defraud.

He is still under investigation for the more than $350,000 he, his wife, and his company, AdVibe, were paid in 2004 by his mother -- then-Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Gates -- during her final campaign, a sum amounting to almost half of her campaign budget.

And that isn't Turner's only business. He also owns Motion Media, and Exotica Entertainment, an escort service. Though it is unclear whether those firms are still operating after being evicted from their office in April for non payment of rent

Turner has told the I-Team through e-mails that everything that's been written about him is untrue. Tuesday night, he passed along another message.

"I'm not my mother," he stated.

Both Turner and O'Gara face one count of child endangerment and one count of possession of a controlled substance, marijuana. But police say the investigation is ongoing and more charges could be filed.

E-mail your comments to Chief Investigative Reporter George Knapp.