United States v. Bernard Joseph

In 1982 the Nevada State Board of Dental Examiners (“Dental Board”) discovered that Bernard Joseph was practicing dentistry in Las Vegas without a license. In January of 1983 Joseph was held in contempt of the Dental Board and fined for violating a permanent injunctiop issued in 1961 which prohibited him from practicing dentistry without a license. The Dental Board also contacted the Clark County District Attorney’s office about the Joseph case, and the DA’s office initiated a criminal investigation to determine if Joseph had violated the applicable state statutes. In August of 1982 the DA’s office obtained a valid search warrant to search Joseph’s office. Pursuant to this warrant, the authorities seized Joseph’s business records. These criminal proceedings culminated in Joseph’s plea of guilty to the crime of practicing dentistry without a license. The case was concluded and closed on June 22, 1983.

After the conclusion of the state criminal case, Joseph’s business records were retained by Deputy DA Michael Amador. He suspected that the records contained evidence of federal tax violations. He made arrangements with Dental Board attorney Jeffrey Clontz to turn the records over to…