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TOURISTS, POLICE OK DEAL OVER FRACAS $900,000 Agreement Awaits Formal Approval By J.M. Kalil, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Front Page, 11-21-02 Under a proposed settlement, the Metropolitan Police Department will pay $900,000 to two tourists who claimed rogue cops concocted bogus charges and had them falsely arrested after a brawl with drunken off-duty SWAT officers. The Police Department on Monday will ask city and county officials to approve using taxpayer money to settle the federal lawsuit filed by cousins Juan Berry and James Suggs. Berry, a corrections officer in a Minnesota prison, and Suggs, who works for a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company in Kentucky, accused Las Vegas police officers of having them jailed on false charges in retaliation for a May 1997 fight they had with four off-duty SWAT officers at the now-defunct Drink nightclub. Las Vegas police Lt. Ted Moody said Wednesday that the settlement does not represent an admission of wrongdoing on the part of the department or the officers involved. But department officials recently decided to settle the lawsuit after weighing the potential financial exposure to liability and how jurors might perceive some of the evidence if the case proceeded to trial next year. "The facts of this case are and remain in dispute, and it never made it to trial, so we'll never know," said Moody, the department's risk manager. Moody declined to discuss those disputed facts, saying "Until they formally approve this recommended settlement agreement, then technically this case is still in litigation." The Police Department confirmed Wednesday that the five officers involved - Bob Rogers, Jerry "Bob" Montes, Mark Mills, Rick Klein and Bob Lewis - remain employed by the department. Lewis received a written reprimand as a result of the incident, according to court documents, but it's unclear whether any of the other officers faced sanctions for their involvement. "Some discipline did come out of this," Moody said, declining to elaborate. Las Vegas attorneys Donald Campbell and Cal Potter, who represent the cousins, declined to comment Wednesday on the settlement prior to its expected approval by the Police Department's Fiscal Affairs Committee. The financial oversight panel comprises one citizen, two Las Vegas City Council members and two Clark County Commissioners. Moody said the proposed resolution to the case was previously agreed upon by all parties to the lawsuit during court-ordered pretrial settlement conferences. The lawsuit stems from a visit Berry, 31, and Suggs, 32, made to Las Vegas for a friend's wedding in May 1997. The cousins went to the nightclub near the Strip and got into a fight with Montes, Mills, Klein, and Lewis, off-duty SWAT officers who were at the club with dates. The fracas unfolded on the dance floor after the men exchanged heated words over a spilled drink. The 1 a.m. fight was broken up by security guards, and police responded to investigate allegations made by members of the SWAT group that Berry or Suggs had battered them with beer bottles. The on-duty patrol officers who responded handcuffed Berry and Suggs and interviewed them as well as the SWAT officers. Berry and Suggs said during this time, the SWAT officers continually taunted them and yelled at the on-duty officers. They said one SWAT officer called them "niggers" and that another continually made a gesture at them, pointed as though he had a gun and was pulling the trigger. Three on-duty responding officers later testified that the SWAT officers threatened the cousins. The on-duty police supervisor at the scene later testified that he was "embarrassed as a police officer" because of the off-duty SWAT officers' "unprofessional behavior." "They were belligerent. They were drunk," Sgt. Steven Custer said of his off duty colleagues. Custer described Berry and Suggs as "calm," "professional, polite and cooperative." Though the SWAT officers demanded that the cousins be charged with felonies, Custer concluded that neither man would be arrested because there was no evidence of an assault. The cousins subsequently returned home. More than a week later, Montes and his date, Rene Madrid, met with Rogers, then a detective in the department's Administrative Detail. During the next 10 days, Rogers conducted a second investigation that culminated in Berry and Suggs being charged with felonies. During the probe, Rogers interviewed the SWAT officers, but never spoke with Berry, Suggs or the on-duty officers who responded to the incident. The district attorney's office did not grant approval to extradite Berry and Suggs from across the country. But police entered the cousins' names in a national database that would cause them to be arrested upon contact with law enforcement officers anywhere in the United States. Berry was arrested in July 1997 in Minnesota and jailed for three days. He was released after Nevada authorities declined to extradite him. Three minutes after Berry's name was cleared from the database, Rogers re-entered it, a move that could have resulted in Berry being arrested in the same charge for which he had already secured his release. When the case was under investigation, Rogers could provide no explanation for why the name was re-entered. After learning of the charges, Suggs flew to Las Vegas and surrendered to police, was booked into jail and immediately released. A justice of the peace later dismissed all the charges against Berry, and the district attorney's office declined to pursue the charges against Suggs. The cousins filed the lawsuit in 1999, naming the department, Rogers, Montes and Madrid as defendants. Montes and Madrid eventually settled for undisclosed amounts of money, according to attorneys. The $900,000 settlement under consideration next week would end the litigation against Rogers and the department. Rogers now works as a robbery detective. Montes, Mills and Lewis are still SWAT officers. All four are paid a base salary of $63,504. Klein has been promoted to sergeant, and earns a base salary of $71,618 supervising patrol officers in the Southwest Area Command. Moody, the department risk manager, said the money for the settlement will come from the department's self-insurance liability fund. The account is funded with public money contributed by the city and county governments. The lieutenant said he did not know if $900,000 rates as one of the costliest disbursals of public money to settle a department lawsuit. "I don't think this is the largest one. It is significant," he said. WORKING TOGETHER TO ATTAIN FAIRNESS | ||
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