Wednesday, April 3, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
PAHRUMP -- A teary-eyed bounty hunter, facing a murder charge in Las Vegas, has been offered a plea bargain here in the beating of his toddler son.
Dennis Kieren, 29, went before Pahrump Justice of the Peace Margaret Tsafos Tuesday on two felony child abuse charges.
Kieren, who appeared earlier this year on the national television show "American Bounty Hunter," faces two to 20 years in state prison.
Kieren's attorney, Harry Gensler, asked that the preliminary hearing be waived. An April 23 arraignment in Nye County District Court was scheduled in the beating of Kieren's 2 1/2-year-old son, Anthony.
The boy had been visiting Kieren for three days at Kieren's parents' home in Pahrump when Anthony was injured. Anthony suffered a lacerated pancreas, internal bleeding and contusions.
Kieren confessed to police in a signed statement after his March 14 arrest to "striking the child but he didn't intend to hurt him," Gensler said.
Gensler and Nye County Deputy District Attorney Kirk Vitto asked for a court recess so they could talk with Kieren outside the courtroom. Gensler said afterward that a plea bargain was offered.
"Right now what we're looking at is him pleading guilty to one of the two counts and dismissing the other," Gensler said.
Kieren, who hung his head as he waited for the session to begin, is charged with one count of abuse and one count of neglect for withholding medical treatment for the boy.
With his hands and feet shackled, Kieren cried as the attorneys discussed his choices.
"I told him to think about it," Gensler said. "It's up to him."
Anthony is still recovering in Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center's pediatric trauma unit, said his mother, Cheryl, who asked that her last name not be used.
Doctors said "they don't know when he can go home," she said today. When he does, he'll have home nurse care so medication can be injected to bring his enzyme count back to normal because of the injury to his pancreas, she said.
"He has to get shots every day, and he doesn't like that," she said.
In addition to the child abuse charges, Kieren faces an open murder charge in Clark County in the March 7 shooting of David Broyles.
Broyles, 26, also a bounty hunter, bit off the top half of Kieren's ear during an argument that started over a dirty dinner plate, police and witnesses said. Kieren's ear was not reattached.
Minutes later, Kieren shot Broyles several times in the chest and back with a semiautomatic handgun as another roommate and Broyles' girlfriend watched, police said.
After the shooting, Kieren called 911 and reported killing Broyles at his 2828 Mt. Hope St. house, near Hollywood and Lake Mead boulevards. He was charged with murder March 21 by the Clark County district attorney.
Dennis Kieren
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