At least 34 percent of Lyon County’s legal sex workers showed signs of human trafficking, according to a four-month audit of the region’s brothels.
The audit, which examined 342 work cards issued last year to 241 sex workers, also identified a decades-long history of failures in code enforcement by the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office.
“At a minimum, 83 prostitutes generated positive indicators of human trafficking that should have required additional investigation,” the internal audit report said.
The Sheriff’s Office investigated Moonlite BunnyRanch, Sagebrush Ranch, Kit Kat Guest Ranch and The Love Ranch — all owned by state Assembly candidate Dennis Hof, who was found dead Tuesday morning at age 72 inside his Southern Nevada brothel, Love Ranch Vegas.
“The audit was focused on the ordinances, not on Dennis,” Michael Carlson, administration director of the Sheriff’s Office, said Friday. “It just so happened that he owned all of them. This is not an issue with Dennis, but about making the ordinances work.”
The final eight-page report, which was prepared by Lyon County Sheriff Al McNeil and Carlson, was presented Thursday at a County Commission meeting.
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