Social media activity of Clark County public defender questioned

Public Defender Renee Alsept actively espouses her hatred for President Trump and Trump supporters on social media

Ken Vance, editor
Clark County Today

A Clark County employee hasn’t been shy about expressing her hatred for President Donald Trump, his supporters, law enforcement and has even mocked “Vantucky’’ residents. Yet, her actions apparently don’t violate the county’s social media guidelines or threaten her employment status.

Renee Alsept has been a public defender with the Clark County Public Defense Department since Nov. 1, 2024. She is a county employee. Dating at least back to 2020, including the period of time she has been employed by Clark County, Alsept has routinely made profane posts on social media about President Trump and his supporters.

A source shared screenshots of 27 social media posts made by Alsept in the last five years, most of which were made in the last year. Here is an example of those posts:

The same source that provided the screenshots told Clark County Today they made an inquiry on July 7 about Alsept’s social media activity with the Clark County Human Resources Department. The following day, Alsept made the following post on social media:

County Manager Kathleen Otto told Clark County Today Thursday that she was just recently made aware of Alsept’s social media activity.

“HR received an anonymous phone call on July 8,’’ Otto wrote in an email reply. “I was briefly made aware at the end of last week. I did not see any posts until last night.’’

Otto was asked what actions were taken or if Alsept was spoken too. Alsept’s direct manager is Christopher Swaby, the county’s director of public defense and chief public defender.

“All concerns received are reviewed and the County does not comment on personnel matters,’’ replied Otto, who confirmed that Alsept was still employed by the county.

Clark County Today spoke with a few current and former county councilors. Former Councilor Gary Medvigy, who also had more than a 40-year career as a judge, was the most outspoken about Alsept’s behavior.

“Awful, awful, awful,’’ Medvigy said. “This is Antifa material and the statements of a radicalized person. No county government, taxpayer supported position should employ a person that is so hateful of the voting public.’’

Medvigy and one other former councilor each pointed to the Clark County Charter as a problem when it comes to the management of county employees.

“If a councilor had known and acted on it, the Charter would have considered the councilor’s behavior ‘interference’ with the Executive Branch,’’ the former councilor said.

Medvigy agreed with that assessment.

“That precisely describes what is wrong with the current charter, making the councilors’ job ineffective and frustrating and very much window dressing compared to the manager’s resources and independence,’’ Medvigy said. “For me as well the unbalanced charter was the main reason I left.’’

Otto told Clark County Today that the county does have a social media policy, but that it doesn’t govern activity on an employee’s personal accounts.

“We do have a social media policy for employees who are posting on County social media sites – this does not cover employees’ own personal social media sites,’’ said Otto, who provided a portion of the county’s Human Resources policy as a reference. 

• 13.6 Political Activity – basically states that employees can’t conduct any political activity as a condition of employment or using any county resources. Additionally, employees can’t discriminate against an employee based upon political views or affiliations unless the “affiliation or support is found to be a bona fide consideration in the quality and effectiveness of their job performance and contribution to the organization.”

Other Clark County Today sources have indicated a concern for Alsept’s ability to represent defendants without bias and expressed the belief that her defendants deserve to be made aware of her social media activity.

Clark County Today has reached out to Renee Alsept via email. This story will be updated if a response is received.