Dayton man says he was beat up by Storey commissioner

A Dayton man claims he was beaten by Storey County Commissioner Greg "Bum" Hess on Tuesday morning after he drove across Hess' day-old asphalt driveway.

Hunter Blackburn, 19, says he was remodeling the inside of a house at 126 Taylor Street in Virginia City when Hess approached him. Hess asked if that was his Kia outside and questioned him about driving on his asphalt driveway laid the day before, Blackburn said.

"I apologized before punches were thrown, but he called me an idiot," Blackburn said. "I said, 'Don't call me that.' I started to get a little heated at that point and he started unbuttoning his sleeves."

Blackburn said Hess began punching him, first in the right ear, then in the nose.

"I put my hands up to protect my face," Blackburn said. "He put his arms around me -- I had to pry him off me. My nose was bleeding. I said, 'You're going to jail, pal,' and I left. I didn't know he was the county commissioner at that point."

On Tuesday Blackburn, who is studying architecture at Western Nevada Community College, had a bloodied knot on the bridge of his nose, scuffs on his lip and ear, a chipped front tooth and said he was going to have his right hand X-rayed.

Hess agreed that Blackburn had driven over his fresh asphalt and there was an altercation Tuesday morning but said no one was hurt.

"There were some arguments and some words, but that was about it," he said. "It wasn't that big of a deal, so I just went on about my business."

He said he doesn't remember any punches being thrown.

"He may have thrown some, but I didn't," he said.

He said maybe some friends were playing a trick on him.

"Somebody could be playing a joke. In fact that sounds like what it might have been, especially with a name like Hunter Blackburn."

Blackburn said when Hess left he called 911 and a Storey County deputy arrived. He said Hess had driven away, but the deputy stopped him in his car.

"The cop stopped him on the street, but (Hess) said he was too busy and had to get to a meeting so he let him go," said Blackburn.

Blackburn said he told the deputy he wouldn't press charges if Hess apologized.

"That's all I want. He can apologize right now and I'll drop the charges," he said.

Storey County Sheriff Pat Whitten said he doesn't know the details of the case because he has been busy with a wildfire in Six Mile Canyon.

"Based on what little I heard from the deputies, the version you're getting from Greg Hess is probably a little closer to what actually happened," he said.

He said the only people who saw what happened were Hess, Blackburn and one other witness, whom he did not name.

"The bulk of the witnesses and the bulk of the evidence tends to support what Greg is saying," Whitten said.

Blackburn thinks the other witness is Hess' wife.

"(Hess has) his wife saying that she saw it when actually it was just the two of us out there when he violently attacked me," Blackburn said.

Blackburn said he talked to the Nevada State ethics commission, Nevada Appeal and the state attorney general because he doesn't expect to be treated fairly in court.

"In court it's not going to hold up because he's the county commissioner," he said. "I don't want to get him impeached or anything, but you can't just beat somebody up."