A Las Vegas judge and mother of three killed herself a year after leaving her position to avoid a complicated ethics probe that began over what she said was her attempt to save her daughter from prostitution.
Melanie Andress-Tobiasson, 53, who stepped down as a Justice of the Peace before a hearing regarding her ethics investigation, was reportedly found dead by suicide Friday, 8NewsNow reported. The outlet did not provide details about how she died.
The judge charged that pimps were “targeting the daughters of judges and law enforcement” to recruit them into prostitution.
Andress-Tobiasson was being investigated by Nevada’s Judicial Discipline Commission for almost two years before she agreed to resign in 2021.
Her problems began when her daughter Sarah, then 16, started working at a clothing store that Andress-Tobiasson claimed was a front for criminal activities and tried to stop it, first by reporting the issue to the police, the Daily Mail reported. She said the store, Top Knotch, was involved with prostitution and trying to recruit her daughter.
She called out Las Vegas cops for ignoring information about the alleged sex trafficking at the store. She claimed that the store was an unlicensed, underage nightclub and added that she was “terrified” of Shane Valentine, who ran the store at the time.
When The Post reached her daughter, Sarah Tobiasson, now 23, on Saturday, she hung up.
Andress-Tobiasson said she had to go to the FBI with the information after being ignored by local police — which resulted in officers investigating her for allegedly breaching judicial rules by making an allegation to federal agents.
A complaint filed against Andress-Tobiasson alleged that she failed to comply with and uphold the law, and allowed family interests and relations to influence her conduct, the Daily Mail reported.
Andress-Tobiasson asked cops to look into Valentine but said they ignored her claims. Valentine was later linked to a shooting where a couple was found dead.
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