Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve filed a lawsuit in Washoe District Court today against David McNeely, a private investigator at 5 Alpha Industries.
Schieve said an auto mechanic found a GPS tracking device on her car.
“Our complaint is based on the Defendants’ flagrant invasion of privacy by installing a GPS tracking device in Ms. Schieve’s private vehicle,” Adam Hosmer-Henner, her attorney, wrote in an emailed statement. “We will aggressively try to find out who hired the private investigators and amend our complaint to include claims against them.
“Furthermore, we were informed that the tracking and surveillance was not limited to Ms. Schieve and that potentially affected community members should inspect their vehicles and property for similar devices.”
McNeely has not responded to a telephone inquiry at the time of publication.
Schieve’s complaint alleges that “other prominent community members” were also similarly monitored. In a lawsuit, she tries to find out who might have hired McNeely.
“At a time of heightened political unrest, the recent revelation of the defendants’ actions still managed to shake conscience. Private investigator David McNeely, at the request of a currently unidentified third party, secretly installed a sophisticated GPS tracking device on Schieve’s private vehicle and monitored her every movement,” the complaint reads.
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“The defendants, acting in concert with third parties, entered Schieve’s private property to install the tracking device and then received up-to-the-minute updates of their location, which is a continuous invasion of their privacy. By pursuing them, the defendants placed Schieve at undue and unwarranted risk of harassment, stalking and physical harm.”
Schieve’s case is being filed as a private individual, not in her capacity as mayor.
“The defendants intended to cause harm to the plaintiff and knew or recklessly disregarded the reasonable probability that disseminating the plaintiff’s location could result in death, personal injury, harassment, stalking, financial loss, or significant loss of life,” the lawsuit reads further.
Bob Conrad is the publisher, editor, and co-founder of This Is Reno. He has held communications positions for various state agencies and received his PhD in Educational Leadership from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2011. He is also a part-time instructor at UNR.
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