Self-described ‘gorilla pimp' attorney sexually exploited clients, Las Vegas police say
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When one woman reached out to Gary Guymon for help fighting her legal battles, he had assured her he was the “real deal,” touting his 34 years of experience as a Nevada prosecutor, investigators said. A second woman sought him out because she heard he was a “good attorney.” A third needed representation for one of multiple court cases.
But after agreeing to represent these women, Guymon, a high-profile lawyer based in Las Vegas, used his position as their defense attorney to sexually exploit them, police allege.
Guymon was arrested last week by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and charged with one count each of sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder, sexually motivated coercion and perjury. He was also charged with three counts each of pandering and bribing or intimidating to influence witness testimony.
“Through the course of the investigation, detectives believe Guymon was using his position as a criminal defense attorney to victimize individuals of sex trafficking and prostitution,” the police said in a statement.
He is accused of running an operation he called the “$100 club,” according to a 50-page arrest report, threatening his victims with violence or jail time if they did not comply with his orders. (The Washington Post does not name victims or alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent.)
Guymon denied any wrongdoing when questioned by police, according to the arrest report, and has not yet entered a plea. After his arrest on Feb. 3, he was released from the Clark County Detention Center later that day on a cash bail of $93,000. When reached by phone, Guymon declined to comment. Court documents do not list an attorney for him, but The Post contacted two lawyers named as Guymon’s counsel in local news stories; neither has responded.
Experts say that these women, who were facing charges, may have been particularly vulnerable to exploitation by someone overseeing their legal outcomes. When one woman refused Guymon’s alleged request for a sexual act, he threatened to stop representing her, according to the arrest report.
Citing evidence outlined in the arrest report, Maggy Krell, a former prosecutor who has taken on sex trafficking cases, said that Guymon was allegedly using a “tried and true playbook” for sex traffickers, by manipulating, coercing and threatening force against his victims.
“What’s unique here is he has the additional leverage of being an attorney, and really at the core of an attorney-client relationship is trust,” she said.
The Clark County District Attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
As of Friday morning, Guymon was still an active member of the State Bar of Nevada, which oversees the state’s attorneys.
Long before he was a defendant in a sex crimes investigation, Guymon prosecuted such cases for Clark County. For 15 years, he served in the district attorney’s office, where he was at one point responsible for prosecuting all sexual assault cases, according to his personal website. He transitioned to defense work in 2005 and advertises his current firm, Guymon & Hendron, as a practice for people who “feel like they have nowhere to turn.”
In the arrest report, which describes evidence gathered through search warrants and interviews, investigators allege that Guymon had sought to seek out three female clients who had hired him for legal help and coerced them to exchange sexual acts for payment.
In a text message viewed by police, he described himself as a “gorilla pimp” to one of his clients, whom he had met last July, according to the arrest report. The text message, laden with sexually explicit and demeaning threats, demanded the woman send a video of her genitals. If she resisted, he threatened to “smash” her teeth out of her mouth.
“For the next 12 months. Effective immediately: you do what I tell you to do. You will date who I tell you to date. You will not break stride. You will march forward. You will level up on my motherf—ing terms conditions and time frame,” he wrote in the message.
A “gorilla pimp” describes a trafficker who exploits their victims with violence, intimidation and aggressive tactics, according to Yasmin Vafa, a human rights attorney based in Washington D.C., and advocate for survivors of gendered violence. Women currently and previously involved in the sex trade industry are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, Vafa said.
One victim, whose interview with police was detailed in the arrest report, said that when she met Guymon, she was trying to change her lifestyle and get out of the sex trade industry. When she approached him last October while awaiting a court appearance at Clark County’s Regional Justice Center, she got the sense that he was well-connected, she told investigators. Guymon immediately agreed to represent her.
She was excited when Guymon initially told her she would be able to work as his secretary, she recounted to investigators. But soon after meeting him, he told her she could pay him for legal services by having sex with him, she said. When she said she didn’t feel comfortable, Guymon responded, “that is how she would be paying him,” according to the arrest report.
After their first meeting, she told police, Guymon said he would connect her with at least four friends who would pay her for sexual acts.
He had told her: “I don’t understand how I’m making you do anything when you do it for a living,” according to the arrest report.
Later, the woman told investigators, she joined Guymon on his boat at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, where he asked her to engage in a sexual act. When she refused, he said that she would go to jail because he would stop representing her, according to the arrest report. Since she had children and feared going back to jail, she complied.
A handful of counties in rural Nevada are the only places in the country where prostitution is legal in highly regulated brothels. But even though prostitution remains illegal in Las Vegas and the rest of Clark County, those laws have created an assumption that it’s normal across the state, said Rebecca Bender, a survivor who was trafficked in Las Vegas.
This false assumption, along with Vegas’s party culture, makes the city “a bed of exploitation,” Bender said. “You don’t have a lot of cities like that.”
As Guymon awaits his first court appearance March 6, he also faces challenges to his legal license. The Nevada State Bar’s Office of Bar Counsel, which investigates attorney misconduct, has filed a petition for the temporary suspension of Guymon’s license, Daniel Hooge, the office’s top counsel, told The Post. Guymon has filed a competing petition for “disability inactive status,” which would also temporarily prohibit him from practicing law, he said.
It could take several days before Nevada’s Supreme Court makes a decision on which petition to enforce, Hooge said. Until then, Guymon’s attorney license remains active.
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