Mark Parmenter has called police, his homeowners association and the man who owns the house next door — a retired Metropolitan Police Department deputy chief — to try and address what he says is a major disturbance in his usually quiet south Las Vegas neighborhood.
Police have been to his neighbor’s home dozens of times in recent years, according to police records, and have searched the house during a criminal investigation. Metro body camera footage obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows the house’s occupant, 43-year-old Ryan Jolley, telling authorities that his father, Gregory Jolley, used to be a top police supervisor in the department. Ryan Jolley has not been arrested or charged with a crime since moving into the home.
Meanwhile, Parmenter said his problems with the house have only persisted.
“I’ve been putting up with this for a long time, and I’ve been reaching out to Greg Jolley, Ryan Jolley, both of them, to please quit threatening me, quit harassing me, quit selling drugs next door to my house, quit having people coming in and out all night,” Parmenter told the Review-Journal. “And it just continues.”
Parmenter said he believes Ryan Jolley is causing the problems, but his father has not prevented the conflicts. He questioned whether Gregory Jolley’s close ties to Metro police have allowed the house on the 1100 block of Vallerosa Street to escape significant enforcement. But Metro Capt. Joshua Younger, who recently took over the Enterprise area command, which includes the neighborhood, disputed that Gregory Jolley’s position affected the police response.
“I can tell you right now, it doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, we will provide the same level of customer service to each and every citizen in this community,” Younger told the Review-Journal.
Younger also said he does not believe there were enforcement mistakes in how police responded to Parmenter’s complaints.
But Younger said he spoke with Ryan Jolley in an attempt to mediate the situation, after the Review-Journal brought Parmenter’s complaints to police officials’ attention.
“(Ryan Jolley) assured me that he’s not going to be a problem with them anymore,” Younger said.
Police records show that Parmenter has called 911 three times in recent years because of problems at his neighbor’s home. He has told responding officers, according to body camera footage, that he believes drug sales are happening in the home, and that Ryan Jolley has threatened him, stating “you’re a dead man” and “you’re going to pay for f — with my dad.”
Parmenter said the threatening statements only got worse after he reached out to Gregory Jolley for help.
Gregory Jolley introduced himself more than two years ago to Parmenter as a Metro volunteer chaplain. Before retiring in 2002, Jolley was a deputy chief with Metro and head of the department’s Crimes Against Persons Bureau.
Parmenter has called police several times about his neighbor’s home to report threatening behavior, vandalism and what he believes are drug sales happening next door, where people enter and exit at all hours of the night, according to police records. He said the department’s internal affairs division told him it cannot help with his complaints because Gregory Jolley is no longer a Metro employee and now volunteers as a chaplain, although Younger claimed the division can oversee volunteer employees.
Last year, Gregory Jolley received more than $212,000 in pension benefits, according to data from the Public Employees Retirement System.
Gregory Jolley referred a Review-Journal reporter to the Metro public information office when asked to comment. Attempts to reach Ryan Jolley for comment were not successful.
Probation searches house
Police and court records show that the house was subject to a search last year targeting the mother of Ryan Jolley’s children, Summer Firethunder.
Ryan Jolley briefly allowed a Department of Parole and Probation officer into the home after Firethunder, 31, was found in violation of her probation from a prior forgery case, body camera video shows. Officers detained Firethunder later that day and returned to the house to conduct a more thorough search.
Police found evidence throughout the home of stolen mail, forged checks and equipment allegedly used to produce fraudulent checks, according to court transcripts. Firethunder was arrested, but Ryan Jolley was not charged in connection with the case, court records show.
Police would have had to establish probable cause to arrest Ryan Jolley, said Younger. He took over the area command in March and said he did not have first-hand knowledge of the investigation.
During a preliminary hearing, Justice of the Peace Diana Sullivan dismissed charges accusing Firethunder of possessing a forged credit card and forging a credit card. Sullivan cited a lack of evidence. She also dismissed a charge of possessing a financial forgery laboratory, ruling that there was not enough evidence to show that the printers and blank check stock found in the home were “specifically configured” to produce forged checks, according to court transcripts.
Firethunder later entered what is known as an Alford plea to plead guilty to a charge of attempted mail theft, meaning she admitted only that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her of the charge, court records show.
Body camera footage showed that Ryan Jolley was briefly handcuffed while the home was searched in May 2024. He then invoked his father’s name to officers investigating the house.
“He was deputy chief when (Jerry) Keller was sheriff, and Bill Young was the other deputy chief,” Ryan Jolley said, after the officers asked him who owned the house.
Body camera footage showed probation officers searching the house after they spoke with Ryan Jolley about his father — telling each other that Ryan Jolley claimed his father was a retired deputy chief and that his mother previously worked with Metro’s background check department.
Ryan Jolley was released from handcuffs and allowed to leave the scene after police determined he had no felony criminal history, the body camera footage showed.
Mail theft investigation
The footage also captured part of an interview between Firethunder and a plainclothes detectives. The detective questioned Firethunder about Ryan Jolley, asking if he was involved in a mail theft scheme or if he had been stealing mail from mailboxes, according to the footage.
In the brief portion of the interview that was captured on the probation officer’s body camera footage, the detective repeatedly asked Firethunder why she had other people’s personal information and what other evidence police would find in the house. He also asked if he needed to “look into Ryan.”
“Is Ryan still doing this and now you’re taking the blame?” the detective asked. “Is he the one that’s breaking into mailboxes?”
Court records show that Ryan Jolley has prior arrests on suspicion of felony domestic violence, domestic battery and felony possession of more than 14 grams of methamphetamine. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor domestic battery in May 2016 and was convicted of misdemeanor drug possession in March 2022, court records show.
‘Something going on’
Parmenter has called 911 at least three times since April 2024 to report threatening behavior and vandalism. Body camera footage shows that he told an officer in August that two men staying at the house had threatened his life.
“They walked all the way over here telling me: You’re dead mother—-” Parmenter said in the body camera footage.
The officer told Parmenter that he had been at the house before to serve a warrant. He also advised Parmenter and his son-in-law to install cameras on the house to gather evidence. He said the situation Parmenter was describing was “he said, she said.”
“I mean there’s nothing really to take a report on,” the officer said on the body camera video when Parmenter asked if he was going to write an incident report.
When the Review-Journal asked for any incident report related to the 911 call, the department responded that there were no responsive public records. Records show that police previously had written an incident report when Parmenter alleged someone vandalized his roof, but officers indicated that there was not enough evidence to name a suspect.
Body camera footage also showed that detectives already had been looking into the house when Parmenter called 911 in April 2024.
During that call, an officer showed up when Parmenter was speaking with neighborhood security. While she looked up information on the Jolley house, she realized detectives had left a note for officers responding to the address.
“I think this is bigger than just these two guys,” the officer told the security guard. “I think there’s something going on in this house.”
The body camera footage showed the officer calling a detective and explaining that the house is occupied by a retired officer’s son.
“Ohhh, you’re over at Jolley’s house,” the detective says.
The footage ends as the detective explains that Gregory Jolley is a chaplain. Metro policy states that officers should turn off body cameras during briefings with “investigative units,” according to police records.
Younger told the Review-Journal he did not know why the detective had flagged the house.
Calls for service
Officers have been dispatched to Gregory Jolley’s home on Vallerosa Street 41 times in the past four years. Not every incident involved a citizen calling 911, and the majority of the incidents were for directed patrol activity or investigative follow-ups, records show.
Metro provided a list of calls for service to the house but redacted the names of 911 callers associated with five of the calls.
Police classified calls to the house as reports of assault, petit larceny, recovered stolen vehicles and suspicious vehicles, records show. Two of the calls involved police arresting Firethunder, first in January 2023 on accusations she bought a Volkswagen with a fraudulent check, a case that was later dismissed, and then in May 2024 in the mail theft case.
With an arrest history dating back to 2018, Firethunder also has been convicted in Clark County of conspiracy to commit theft, escaping a police car while in custody and forgery, court records show.
A probation officer testified during a preliminary hearing in the mail theft case that he saw evidence of drug use, including tin foil and a pipe, when he first searched the home in May 2024. The detective who interviewed Firethunder at the home told her “obviously there’s other drugs in there, there’s paraphernalia,” but that he was only concerned with the alleged fraudulent activity, according to body camera footage. Firethunder was not charged with any drug-related crimes.
Firethunder did not want to be interviewed for this article, according to her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Layla Medina.
Pleas for help
Parmenter has texted Gregory Jolley multiple times over the past year asking for help with the house next door. He’s received a single, one-word response: “Stop.”
“I tell him: You’re a cop, and you’re supposed to report this,” Parmenter told the Review-Journal. “And he’s never done nothing about it. And I’ve been telling him this for a year, and I’m just tired of getting threatened.”
When Parmenter contacted his homeowners association, the community management organization told him to contact the police if he felt like his safety was being threatened.
Parmenter has installed a bar across his front door, because he said he’s afraid of someone associated with his neighbor’s house breaking in. He said Ryan Jolley has cursed at him and has taped a sign pointing at his house calling him a homophobic slur and accusing him of cheating on his wife.
He used to be cordial with both Ryan and Gregory Jolley. But Parmenter said Ryan Jolley has gotten increasingly hostile, while his father just ignores him.
“I’ve asked Greg Jolley for help, and he won’t do nothing,” Parmenter said. “… This is what really upsets me, is because he’s a chaplain and he’s a cop. And when you ask a chaplain and a cop for help, you expect help, you know what I mean?”
Contact Katelyn Newberg at [email protected] or 702-383-0240. Newberg is a member of the Review-Journal’s investigative team, focusing on reporting that holds leaders and agencies accountable and exposes wrongdoing.