The mayor of Reno, Hillary Schieve, has filed a lawsuit against a private investigator and his company after discovering a tracking device on her vehicle.
The lawsuit, which was originally reported by The Nevada Independent on Thursday, argues that the investigator unlawfully installed the device on her premises. It is stated that Schieve was ignorant of the issue until a mechanic discovered it while repairing her vehicle.
According to the complaint, the investigator worked for a “unidentified third party” whose identity she has been unable to determine.
“The tracking and surveillance of Schieve caused her great worry and distress, as it would any reasonable person,” it states.
The Associated Press emailed David McNeely, the investigator who is believed to have planted the monitoring device, and 5 Alpha Industries, the company, a request for comment on Friday.
Schieve, who brought the lawsuit as a private individual in the Second Judicial Court of Washoe County in 2014, was elected to her third term as mayor last month. She seeks compensation for invasion of privacy, trespassing, civil conspiracy, and carelessness, in addition to attorney fees. Additionally, she wants to know who hired the investigator.
In an interview with The Nevada Independent, the mayor stated that the technician discovered the tracking device approximately two weeks before the election. She turned it over to police in neighboring Sparks, who were able to determine that McNeely had purchased it.
Schieve told AP in a statement, “I am publicly declaring this now, as I did not do so at the time it was discovered, to make clear that this is about one thing and one thing only: it is not acceptable to stalk individuals.”
A representative for the mayor stated that Schieve contacted Sparks police instead of Reno police to “avoid any conflict of interest problems.”
The complaint also says, without any evidence, that the business “placed identical tracking devices on the vehicles of multiple other prominent members of the community.”
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