Attorney’s Alleged Suicide Plot Leads to Arson, Fraud and Drug Arrest

After a bizarre, bumpy ride with the FBI probing what they called a massive fraud and corruption scandal involving Las Vegas homeowners associations, the person at the center, construction defect attorney Nancy Quon, has been arrested.  Though back in March police officials said that an indictment on the federal HOA probe was imminent, that indictment never came and no federal charges were filed.  Yesterday’s arrest follows an  indictment stemming from police are calling two separate suicide attempts involving arson, drugs and life insurance fraud that allegedly took place earlier this year when the FBI was turning the heat up.

According to KLAS News, on August 17^th, a Clark County grand jury returned an indictment against Quon. She was arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center later that afternoon on $400,000 bail for charges of conspiracy and conspiracy to violate the Uniform Controlled Substance Act.

Quon is also charged with two new felonies that stem from what authorities call an attempted suicide scheme in which they say Quon set her house on fire back in October of 2010, causing about $250,000 to $300,000 in damages. Added on were charges for arson and insurance fraud, which her boyfriend, William Ronald Webb, who is a former Las Vegas police officer, is also charged with.

Prosecutors are making this the third time that this arson case has seen a grand jury. This indictment is in addition to drug charges that Quon was already facing, and conspiracy to commit murder charges for Webb.

Quon is also the target of a separate federal probe into Las Vegas-area homeowner’s associations.

Prosecutors allege Quon, 51, set the fire in a botched suicide attempt and participated in another suicide plot that involved obtaining illegal drugs, all in an effort to escape the pressure of the federal HOA investigation.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Webb is behind bars on $400,000 bail due to those drug and murder conspiracy charges because he tried to buy 29.2 grams of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, which also goes by its club name, GHB, from undercover detectives several days after the fire. Prosecutors allege that Quon financed the deal and was supposed to take the GHB in a plot to kill herself with a drug that the couple thought was undetectable so that her children could still collect the life insurance.

Quon has denied setting the fire and trying to kill herself.

The indictment alleges that Quon “wilfully, unlawfully, maliciously and feloniously” set fire to the Las Vegas home sometime between Oct. 27 and Oct. 28. Then, with Webb’s help, Quon defrauded State Farm Insurance into paying for temporary housing for the couple and structural repairs to the home knowing that the fire was not caused by accident, the indictment alleges.

In previous case views from the grand jury, they had refused to indict Quon and Webb in the fire. This time around however, there are 14 more witnesses and new information that was uncovered.

Back in October, and two days before the fire, Quon was described as “detached and despondent” when she gave handwriting samples to local and federal investigators probing the HOA.

Quon acknowledged that she took sleeping pills and drank a high-alcohol energy drink before the fire. She was rescued from the smoke-filled home by Webb’s older brother, Daniel, who found her unconscious on a downstairs sofa. Authorities state that Webb had arranged to be out of town during the fire.

The paramedics who revived Quon testified that they believed she suffered a “narcotic overdose.” The fire investigators testified that their suspicions were raised about the cause of the fire because it had started in two separate places in Quon’s upstairs master bedroom.

Prosecutors suspect the drug suicide plot unfolded days before the fire when Webb asked his friend Robert Justice, 45, a two-time convicted felon, to help get him the GHB. Justice broached the subject with one of his friends, who turned out to be an undercover detective.

Police said they manufactured the GHB in the department’s lab and sold it to Webb and Justice, who ended up pleading guilty and testifying against Webb and Quon.

Please note that these are merely accusations made by police.  A person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.