Employees reportedly claim they were ordered to transport potentially hazardous materials, including suspected uranium, mercury and arsenic, to a county government building. The allegations come just days after auditors exposed serious failures in the same office’s property storage and security procedures.
The Clark County Public Administrator’s Office is facing another round of troubling allegations, this time involving potentially radioactive and toxic materials allegedly transported from a deceased person’s home into a government office vault on Shadow Lane.
According to allegations circulating on X, employees say investigators clearing out a residence were instructed by Public Administrator Rita Reid to transport potentially hazardous materials to the office’s vault at 515 Shadow Lane in Las Vegas. The substances reportedly included mercury, uranium identified as U92, and arsenic associated with a silver sulfosalt mineral.
The allegations have not been independently verified, and there is no public confirmation that the materials were radioactive, that they posed an exposure hazard, or that Reid issued the reported instructions. The social media account making the allegations also claimed that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Clark County had not responded to requests for comment.
What makes the accusations particularly concerning is their timing. Less than two weeks ago, a Clark County audit revealed significant failures involving the very office and vault at the center of these new allegations, including inadequate inventory controls, questionable access to secured property, and a lack of enforced procedures for safeguarding items taken from deceased residents’ homes.
Employees Allege Dangerous Materials Were Brought Into County Storage
The allegations raise questions about how Clark County handles potentially dangerous substances discovered while administering the estates of deceased residents.
The Public Administrator’s Office is responsible for securing property when someone dies without an available or qualified person to administer their estate. Investigators routinely enter residences, document belongings, and take possession of valuables and other personal property.
That work can expose employees to potentially dangerous conditions, including chemicals, contaminated materials, firearms, and other items that require specialized handling.
In this case, the social media allegations suggest that investigators encountered materials believed to include uranium, mercury, and arsenic compounds and were directed to bring them into the office’s vault rather than leave them at the residence.
Uranium is a radioactive element, although the designation “U92” in the post is not enough to establish what material was actually present. Mercury and arsenic are toxic substances that can pose serious health risks depending on their chemical form, quantity, and how they are handled. Certain silver sulfosalt minerals naturally contain arsenic, but identifying a mineral by name does not establish that it presents an immediate exposure hazard.
No laboratory results, radiation measurements, hazardous-material reports, or official inventory records have been made available to substantiate the claims.
An employee was also quoted as saying the office has “absolutely no policies on anything,” despite requests from the county to provide them.
That assertion is broader than what has been independently established, but the recent county audit documented specific failures involving written procedures and property controls.
County Audit Exposed Serious Problems With the Same Vault
On October 28, Clark County’s Audit Committee reviewed a report identifying eight areas of concern within the Public Administrator’s Office. Six were classified as high risk, and auditors issued 23 recommendations for corrective action.
The audit, which examined operations between January 2024 and August 2026, documented serious weaknesses in the handling of property collected from deceased residents.
According to the Las Vegas Sun’s reporting on the audit, a vault technician had physical custody of property, the ability to change inventory records, and responsibility for inventory audits without adequate independent oversight.
Auditors also found that the office lacked an enforced formal policy for conducting complete vault inventories. During a sample inspection of 30 items, investigators could not locate a laptop listed in the records, although they could not determine whether it was missing or whether its disposal status had simply not been updated.
The audit also identified problems with access to secured storage areas. Some employees retained access inconsistent with their responsibilities, while another individual recorded as having access could not be verified as a county employee.
These findings are particularly relevant to the new allegations. If potentially hazardous materials were brought into the vault, questions about who authorized their storage, who could access them, how they were inventoried, and whether employees were properly trained would become matters of immediate concern.
The audit did not establish that radioactive materials were stored in the vault, and its findings should not be interpreted as confirmation of the social media allegations. Las Vegas Sun+1
Nearly 1,900 Open Cases, $623,000 in Untransferred Fees, and Human Remains Sitting in Storage
The vault security problems represent only part of what auditors uncovered.
According to The Nevada Independent, the office had 1,892 open estate cases as of July 2026, with an average age exceeding three years. Hundreds had been open for more than five years, and 34 had remained unresolved for more than a decade.
The department was also holding more than 4,500 personal property items and 147 vehicles, some of which had been sitting in storage for years.
Auditors found that approximately $623,000 in service fees collected since March 2024 had not been transferred to the county. They also identified hundreds of checks that had not been properly processed, including some worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Perhaps most disturbing was the discovery that the office was storing 105 sets of human cremated remains and six sets of pet remains, with no adequate plan for their final disposition. Some had been held for more than a decade.
The department operates with a fiscal 2027 budget of approximately $2.5 million and 29 full-time and part-time employees.
County officials have argued that the problems extend beyond staffing shortages and involve fundamental operational and management failures.
At the October 28 Audit Committee meeting, Commissioner Michael Naft expressed frustration over the department’s lack of a corrective plan. Reid acknowledged delays, cited staffing and resource problems, and agreed to allow county staff to begin supervising departmental operations to implement improvements. The Nevada Independent
An Office Already Scarred by the Murder of Investigative Reporter Jeff German
The Public Administrator’s Office is no stranger to scandal.
In 2022, former Public Administrator Robert Telles became the subject of investigative reporting by Las Vegas Review-Journal journalist Jeff German, who exposed allegations of bullying, favoritism, and misconduct inside the department.
German was murdered in September 2022. Telles was subsequently convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Rita Reid, who had worked in the department for years, was among the employees who publicly challenged Telles’ leadership. She subsequently won election as Public Administrator and took office in January 2023.
Her administration was expected to restore stability and public confidence after one of the darkest chapters in Clark County government history.
Yet the October 2026 audit shows that serious operational and accountability problems remain. Reid has said the department has been working to recover from the turmoil surrounding Telles’ administration and has cited insufficient resources among the obstacles facing her office.
Reid is not seeking reelection. The Nevada Independent+1
Were Hazardous-Material Specialists Ever Called?
The immediate concern surrounding the new allegations is whether the materials were identified and handled appropriately.
If investigators encountered containers or minerals believed to contain radioactive or toxic substances, several questions require answers. Did anyone contact the fire department’s hazardous-material response team or another qualified specialist? Were radiation measurements taken? Was the material properly packaged, labeled, and documented? Were employees warned about potential hazards before handling or transporting it?
And perhaps most importantly, are the materials still being stored inside the Public Administrator’s Office?
There is an important distinction between possessing a naturally occurring mineral containing uranium and improperly storing a dangerous radioactive substance. Some mineral specimens contain small amounts of naturally occurring radioactive material and can be handled under appropriate precautions. Other substances, particularly if concentrated, damaged, or improperly contained, can create more significant risks.
Without knowing what investigators actually found, its quantity, and whether testing occurred, there is no reliable way to determine the potential danger.
Nevertheless, an office already criticized for inadequate property tracking and vault access controls should be able to explain how it handles materials that employees believe may be hazardous.
Clark County Needs to Answer Some Basic Questions
The latest allegations remain unverified, and neither Clark County nor Metro has been shown to have issued a public statement specifically addressing them.
But the underlying audit findings are not speculation. County auditors have already documented major weaknesses involving property security, inventory procedures, and management oversight.
The county should be able to establish whether hazardous materials were recovered from an estate, whether any such materials were transported to the Shadow Lane office, who authorized their handling, and whether qualified personnel assessed them.
If the allegations prove unfounded, county officials should provide the facts necessary to resolve them. If the materials were transported and stored without appropriate safeguards, the public deserves to know what corrective action has been taken.
For a department entrusted with entering deceased residents’ homes, securing valuable property, and protecting the interests of surviving families, proper documentation and basic safety procedures are not optional.
The October audit already established that Clark County has serious work to do inside the Public Administrator’s Office. The new allegations raise another question that deserves a clear answer: What exactly has been brought into the government vault on Shadow Lane, and who is making sure it is safe?
