Four more people infected with West Nile in county
The Southern Nevada Health District is reporting four new cases of West Nile virus, bringing the total in Clark County for 2019 to 16.
One new case involves a man over 50 with the more serious neuroinvasive form of the illness. Two men and one woman, all under the age of 50, have confirmed cases of the nonneuroinvasive form of the illness. Of the 16 reported cases, 11 have had the more serious neuroinvasive form of the illness, which can be fatal.
West Nile virus is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. The health district encourages Southern Nevadans to take precautions such as wearing long sleeves and long pants and and using Epa-approved insect repellent.
The 16 cases put the county on pace for one of the worst years for the illness since it was first detected here in 2004.
Clark County typically experiences 10 or fewer cases each year, with a high of 26 cases in 2009 and no cases reported in either 2010 or 2018. July 31 after the woman told police that her 9- and 11-year-old daughters were being touched inappropriately by a man she described as “the neighborhood babysitter for a number of families,” according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report.
The children told their mother that Washington made them record him while he performed sexual acts on himself and would take the girls’ clothes off and perform sexual acts on them, police said.
“Washington informed the children that they would be taken away from their parents if they told anyone what they were doing, because it was wrong,” the police report said.
The mother said she believed “there are at least seven other children who have had some sort of sexual contact” with Washington, police said.
Police did not find any incriminating videos or photos on Washington’s phone but have not yet completed a forensic examination to determine if materials were recently deleted, according to the report.
Police said they found at least four reports to Child Protective Services accusing Washington of “inappropriate sexual acts with young girls in his neighborhood.” The report did not say when those reports were made or detail whether they were investigated.
CPS did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Washington has been charged with two counts of child abuse, one count of lewdness with a child under 14 and one count of attempted lewdness with a child under 18.
He was released on $100,000 bail and required to have high-level electronic monitoring. He is also not allowed to reside at his apartment in northern
Las Vegas and must avoid the victims’ addresses. spoke to another male at the apartment and James “became upset and threw a piggy bank, striking her in the head,” according to the report.
When James was arrested, police found him in a parking lot where he was hitting a woman who was seven months’ pregnant and the mother of his 3-yearold, the arrest report said.
He was charged with kidnapping a minor, sex trafficking a child under 16, accepting the earnings of a prostitute, statutory sexual seduction by a person over 21 and luring a child with a computer for a sex act.
James is being held without bail after getting in a courtroom altercation with another inmate.