Thursday, April 4, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
A Metro Police training videotape that allegedly shows an officer threatening to sodomize two cadets with handcuffs and a baton has been barred as evidence in the trial of three former cops.
The Clark County judge's decision is a blow to three former Las Vegas officers on trial in connection with the alleged beating and threatened sodomy of convicted thief Andrew Dersch.
The trial was to continue today with the possibility that the former cops may take the witness stand, an unusual and potentially risky legal move because their testimony could be used to help convict them.
Fired officers Brian Nicholson, Robert Phelan, both 26, and Sgt. James Campbell, 48, are accused of oppression under the color of law, conspiracy and filing false police reports. A charge of battery was dropped.
District Court Judge Lee Gates ruled Wednesday that the 1995 police academy videotape allegedly used to illustrate acceptable intimidation tactics was inadmissible. The crime of threatening to sodomize a person is not lessened because it was used in police training, the judge said.
"It's irrelevant and it's a waste of time," Gates said. For the same reason, the judge also barred a videotape of the 1994 New Year's Eve riot that allegedly records Metro officers continuing to hit party-goers after they have fallen.
Attorneys for Nicholson, Phelan and Campbell wanted to use the two tapes to deflect the damaging testimony of Deputy Chief Richard McKee.
"We're not saying it's a defense, but it should be relevant," attorney Steve Wolfson said. "It should be before the jury as to Brian Nicholson's state of mind."
The lawyer did not provide evidence that the officers learned similar police intimidation tactics during their academy training, which preceded 1995.
Casino security guards earlier testified that they saw Nicholson stand over a prone Dersch while holding a baton with a rubber glove pulled over it. The guards said Dersch's buttocks was exposed.
The officers went to the Fremont hotel-casino on June 11 to arrest Dersch for allegedly stealing coins from customers. A videotape shows Phelan hitting Dersch after he refused to give his name and then records an officer roughly moving Dersch into an adjoining room without a surveillance camera where he allegedly was physically threatened and harmed.
McKee, who ran 10 police academies but not the 1995 training, said threatening to sodomize a suspect violated police policy regarding intimidation tactics. Permissible tactics include lying to a suspect, the instructor said.
McKee also testified that Phelan acted outside police policy when he hit Dersch in the chest with his palm and that Campbell failed as a sergeant when he did not immediately reprimand Phelan or remove him from the scene.
Prosecutors continued to hammer out the state's case Wednesday by playing a recorded conversation at the Fremont casino.
Police dispatch recorded a telephone call placed by Nicholson. The former officer was requesting an ambulance for Dersch, who had cut his forehead while in custody.
The tape records a man saying: "Come on, give me your Social Security number before I dump you back in that blood."
Jurors cocked their heads and listened attentively to the recording. A few took rapid notes.
Neither dispatcher who testified Wednesday identified the voice, though prosecutors suggested it belonged to one of the officers.
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