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How Not to Write a News Story
Journalism at its Worst
On January 29, 2009, I was arrested and charged with a felony. On my way to work, I had stopped by the Regional Justice Center to take care of a routine speeding ticket. I didn't want to leave my laptop in the car, so I took it with me. I placed the backpack-style case and the laptop on the conveyor belt to be X-rayed. I walked through the metal detector, and was immediately handcuffed. I had forgotten about the handgun I had slipped into an unused pocket of the case.
On February 14, 2009, a Las Vegas Sun reporter, Jeff German, wrote a news article on my arrest. In the article, German portrayed me as "a former Las Vegas cabdriver with a violent past." Very little of what German wrote is accurate. Most of his story is twisted; some is simply not true. Since I studied journalism in college, and am responsible for writing news articles and press releases for my current employer, I have some idea of the process involved in writing a news story. Apparently, German missed that day when he was in school (if he went to school). He made absolutely no effort to contact the subject of his story. Using only my name, a simple Google search produces my contact information on the first two pages of the search results. There's absolutely no excuse for the sorry example of "yellow journalism" written by German.
Wherever this Web site leads to in the future, the first step for me is to make it known to Las Vegas and to the world who I am and, more importantly, who I am not. I am not a criminal. Here is German's story as he wrote it. The whole truth is hidden. Would you like to read the whole truth? If not, click on any red footnote-style link to display my comments for that particular line only. All images are mine, and were never included in German's story.
show the whole truth
Courthouse security stops man with
concealed gun
By Jeff German
Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Vigilance paid off for a courthouse marshal manning a metal detector two weeks ago at the Regional Justice Center.
The marshal, Jason Dean, arrested a former Las Vegas cabdriver[1] with a violent past[2] for allegedly carrying a loaded unregistered handgun in his backpack while going through the scanner Jan. 29. The district attorney's office later filed a one-count felony complaint against the ex-cabbie, Jonas Maxwell, 51, charging him with bringing a concealed firearm into the courthouse.
Maxwell was carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun with "26 rounds of ammunition," according [to] the arrest report. The gun was behind a laptop computer[3] in Maxwell's backpack.
The marshals say they usually find a couple of firearms a year on people coming to the courthouse.
Maxwell told Dean he had no business in court that day, but he would not say why he was there.[4]
He also told Dean he had never been arrested[5], but a check of police records, Dean said in the report, showed "priors for battery[6] and obstructing a police officer[7]."
Taxicab industry sources said Maxwell worked for seven months at Yellow Checker Star until he was let go in January 2007 after a fight with a doorman at the Palms.[8]
Maxwell also got into an altercation with a police officer on the Strip while working as a cabdriver in May 2006, the industry sources said.[9]
Attorney Allen Cap, who said he bailed Maxwell out of the county jail after his Jan. 29 arrest, described him as a "pretty nice guy." He said the incident was "an absolute mistake" on Maxwell's part.
"He told me [he] was there for a traffic matter and didn't realize the gun was in his backpack," Cap explained.[10] "He said he was going to do some target shooting later in the day."[11]
Cap — who filed a lawsuit on Maxwell's behalf in December stemming from a motorcycle accident that injured Maxwell — said his client now works at a local art gallery.[12]
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