Husband's account of happy marriage ripped at Metro trial

Brian Nadell's attempt to attribute his marital troubles to his wife's July 1994 arrest by Metro Police was quickly shot down in federal court Thursday by attorneys representing the department and three officers accused of violating Brenda Nadell's civil rights.

Brian and Brenda Nadell filed a lawsuit in 1995 against Metro Police and Officers Greg Ziel, Steven Leyba and Michael Etherton claiming that they violated Brenda Nadell's civil rights on July 22, 1994, by beating and arresting her without justification.

The trial began this week in federal court.

During his cross examination of Brian Nadell, Brian Whitaker, a defense attorney, produced court documents showing that Brenda Nadell had asked for a divorce in 1993 after the couple's third separation in two years of marriage. Whitaker said that Brenda Nadell claimed her husband had physically abused her.

Whitaker also produced a complaint signed by Brenda Nadell in 1993 in which she claimed her husband threatened her, and an injunction issued against Brian Nadell to prevent him from molesting, harassing, assaulting or battering his wife and/or their daughter, Melody.

Brian Nadell initially said he couldn't remember ever seeing the paperwork, then changed his mind when Whitaker handed Nadell his response to his wife's divorce request as well as a counterclaim for divorce that the man filed through an attorney he had retained.

"My memory's getting a lot better now," Brian Nadell said as he flipped through the pages, a half-smile forming on his face.

Brian Nadell's hazy recollection wasn't limited to the documents, however. Several times during his testimony, the professional poker player claimed to not remember dates relevant to the case.

He also couldn't remember why she aborted a pregnancy shortly after having their first child in 1992. His wife aborted another pregnancy after her arrest in 1994.

Brenda Nadell, Melody and Brenda's sister, Crystal Guerra, were at a home at 5464 Consul Ave., near Nellis Boulevard and Sahara Avenue, when a domestic dispute erupted between the home's owner, Michael Laing, and his then-wife, Sherry, on the Friday night of the 1994 arrests.

Michael Laing testified Thursday that he is a professional gambler and knew Brian Nadell as a gaming table acquaintance. Laing said that the two sisters had come over to his home so that Guerra could be interviewed as a possible baby sitter for Laing's young son.

Laing said that after a while some friends came over and a party started. Brenda Nadell became ill from drinking a strong liquor and went into a bedroom to lie down.

At some point, Laing and his wife got into an argument that ended with paramedics taking the wife to the hospital after she slammed her hand through a living-room window.

Etherton, Ziel and Leyba, dispatched to the home to look into a report from the fire department about a domestic dispute, testified that they saw shattered glass around the front of the home, saw Guerra holding Nadell's baby, and both had blood on them. They said they were trying to investigate when Brenda Nadell -- lying partially clothed in a bedroom -- struck Leyba in the chest, scratched his arm and kicked him.

Brenda Nadell was arrested on a gross misdemeanor charge of battery on a police officer and a felony charge of being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Police said she fought them the entire way from the house to the jail -- thrashing while being carried out of the house and during the ride in the patrol car, and spitting at a medical team that had to restrain her while attempting to draw her blood later at University Medical Center.

The blood test revealed that Brenda Nadell's blood-alcohol concentration was 0.28. No controlled substances were found and that charge was dropped. The battery charge was also later dropped.

Brian Nadell said he was gambling at the Gold Coast during the incident with police at the Consul Avenue house. He said he heard about his wife's arrest from a hysterical Guerra who had called him at home, crying into the phone, about 11 p.m.

Nadell was able to bail his wife out of jail the next day. Authorities kept his daughter at Child Haven until the following Monday.

"I will never forget that day she got off the elevator," Nadell said, recalling the morning he picked his wife up at Clark County Detention Center. "I just lost it -- I couldn't believe what I saw."

Nadell said his wife was bruised all over, and that either he or Guerra took Polaroid pictures of her bruises that afternoon. The couple went to Metro's Internal Affairs Bureau two days later where more photos of the bruises were taken.

"My wife was emotionally distraught -- she was unstable. She was afraid to go out, to drive, to have any contact with any police officer," Nadell said. "Brenda's state of mind at that time was so fragile that there was nothing my family or myself knew to do to deal with these problems."

About that time, the couple learned that Brenda was pregnant. Brian Nadell said they decided to abort the child. He said an ultrasound before the abortion showed the fetus sitting straight up, one hand up "like it was waving goodbye."

He said, suddenly beginning to sob, that they were told the baby had blood in its stomach. "I was so in fear, no one could tell me my baby would be OK."

Brian Nadell's tears quickly disappeared, however, when Whitaker asked him how it could be that he blamed his wife's July 1994 arrest for their marital problems when in 1996 he gave a deposition in the case claiming that his marriage was "very good."

Whitaker further probed Brian Nadell about his wife leaving him early in their marriage to go to London, telling him several times that his gambling left her at home lonely and without friends, and about his suspicions that his wife had cheated on him while still newlyweds.

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