Dave Marlon, Candidate for LV City Council Ward One. Campaign photo
An arrest report from 2012 says current Las Vegas City Council candidate David Marlon “started sweating and acting extremely nervous and agitated” when Metro police responded to a call from Marlon’s wife alleging domestic abuse.
Last week, Marlon told the Current via a campaign spokesperson that his former wife, Erin, relapsed while in substance abuse treatment, and that he flushed her drugs down the toilet, prompting her to call police.
“My former wife was in recovery at the time. She suffered a serious relapse,” Marlon said in a statement. “I used a textbook approach and flushed her drugs down the toilet. She called the police and claimed domestic abuse. I was never charged and the records were sealed.”
Erin Smith Marlon disputes her ex-husband’s story and says that she has never had a substance abuse problem nor been in treatment.
“I have never been in treatment or recovery,” Erin Marlon told the Current, via email. “I’ve never had any drug and alcohol related problems or charges. No DUIs, arrests, anything.”
Marlon’s statement to police at the time makes no mention of drugs or his former wife’s alleged addiction.
The responding officer “also stated that David had several inconsistencies with his story.”
“Due to the fact that (Erin) Smith has several marks and injuries on her person that are consistent with the story she gave us, the fact that Smith stated when David grabbed her by the throat she could not breathe and she thought she was going to pass out, the fact that Smith tried several times to get away from David but David continued to use force to hold her against her will, the fact that Smith believed as long as David was preventing her from leaving he was going to continue to inflict harm on her, David was arrested for Battery Domestic Violence Strangulation and Kidnap 1st Degree,” the arrest report says.
The Current has obtained a copy of a criminal complaint against Marlon dated August of 2012.
“David hired a defense attorney and pressured me to not testify against him,” Erin Marlon said in a statement. “While David’s tactics scared me, they also worked. He persuaded me to sign a document stating the altercation was only verbal and not physical, in order to dissolve the Restraining Order I had against him. I did not and do not believe the document to be true, but in the end I was 26 years old and he was 48. Like many women, I was scared, I was in love and wanted to fix my marriage.”
Neither Marlon nor his campaign spokesman responded to our request for comment.
On Sunday, January 6, the day before Marlon announced his candidacy, the Clark County Coroner confirmed another client died at Solutions Recovery, one of the American Addiction Centers facilities then operated by Marlon, who resigned from the company a few days later to focus on his run for office.
A source close to Andrew “Drew” Sanders from Macomb Township, Michigan, told the Current that Sanders hung himself on the doorknob of his room at the residential facility.
Sanders’ deaths brings the total of deaths at American Addiction Centers’ Las Vegas facilities to at least five in just over two years. Nevada law does not require non-medical facilities to report deaths to the state.
American Addiction Centers declined comment, citing patient confidentiality rules.
Neither Marlon nor his campaign responded to requests for comment.
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