Nevada authorities are investigating sexual assault allegations against Hof, a flamboyant legal pimp who is running for the state Legislature. The department said in a statement that the investigation was based on a request by a sheriff in northern Nevada's Carson City, where Hof owns several legal brothels. DPS spokeswoman Kim Smith declined to provide additional details. Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said Wednesday night that his office responded after a woman at a hospital made a complaint that Hof had raped her sometime over the weekend.
Hof has been accused of sexual assault on at least three other occasions dating back to Prosecutors declined to file charges over the allegations, citing the expired statute of limitations. Hof denies those allegations. He has also tangled with county regulators, who have twice shuttered one of his southern Nevada brothels, contending that he failed to renew his licenses or get proper permits for renovations.
The brothel owner has said the regulatory problems at the brothel outside Las Vegas where NBA player Lamar Odom was found unconscious in are also politically motivated. He has taken the county and county officials to court. The issues have cropped up amid an anti-brothel push by a coalition of religious groups and anti-sex trafficking activists. Voters in Lyon County, where Hof has several brothels, will consider in November whether to ban the legal bordellos.
A similar effort failed in Nye County. Brothels were illegal but tolerated in some areas until , when the Mustang Ranch near Reno became the first legal brothel. It led to a movement that allowed counties with populations of , people or fewer to decide whether to legalize prostitution in licensed facilities. Outside of bordellos, prostitution is illegal. About 20 brothels operate in Nevada, mostly in rural areas.
