Earlier this month, Carson City Sheriff candidate Donald Gibson spoke to voters about his law enforcement experience during a community forum.
“I’ve had my fair share of sexual assault investigations. Which I was the lead investigator on, up and until we turned it over to detectives. In some cases, I solved the crime myself,” he said.
But over the summer, Gibson published a Facebook post responding to allegations he was friends with Gabriel Miles, who in 2014 pled guilty to statutory sexual seduction of a victim younger than 16.
Gibson acknowledged he and Miles had been close, and that he let Miles’s family live on his property for several months.
“About a year and a half after they moved from our property, I learned information about the father's past involving a relationship with a teenage girl when he was in his twenties. I confronted him, and after he acknowledged that information, my family chose to distance ourselves,” he wrote.
But Gibson said they still played softball together, even though they were no longer close. He also acknowledged that a printing company Miles and his wife own donated shirts to his campaign.
“Let me be absolutely clear: I do not support or condone criminal conduct of any kind, especially crimes involving children,” he added.
Miles confirmed he’s no longer friends with Gibson and that his family lived on Gibson’s property. He said he never joined them, though, because he was renovating a house they were planning to move into.
But Miles said he doesn’t know anything about the donation and denied they played sports together.
“I actually don’t play softball,” he said.
This wasn’t the first time someone came forward about their connection, however.
Carson Now reporter Kelsey Penrose first heard Gibson let Miles stay with him three years ago. At the time, she was reporting about Miles’s involvement with youth sports, in spite of his criminal record.
“Several of our sources told us that Don Gibson was aware of Miles' sex offender status prior to and while he was living on his property,” she said.
Penrose also heard Miles was using a different address on the sex offender registry at the time, which is a felony. But she couldn’t publish a story about it, because none of her sources would go on record.
So Penrose filed a report with the Carson City Sheriff’s Office. She never got a response.
“I think that a lot of people have ignored this,” she said. “And I don't know why.”
Gibson said he stands by what he wrote, and had nothing further to add. But the whole episode makes Penrose question his fitness for office, especially as sheriff.
“I would be concerned about any individual in law enforcement holding ideas that a child could have a relationship with an adult,” she said.
