Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2000 | 11:17 a.m.
A North Las Vegas Police detective was in the Clark County Detention Center this morning, charged with assaulting a woman over the weekend in a Home Depot parking lot.
Detective William Brooks was suspended with pay by the North Las Vegas Police Department Sunday night after he was arrested by Metro Police, said Lt. Chris Larotonda, North Las Vegas Police spokesman.
Brooks was charged Sunday night with assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and battery, Metro Deputy Chief Ray Flynn said.
According to the 36-year-old woman's statement to police, Brooks grabbed her from behind Sunday about 10:40 a.m. in the Home Depot parking lot near Alta Drive on Rainbow Boulevard, forcing her into her Porsche and struggling with her.
Brooks also is accused of striking her several times, then pulling a gun, pointing it at her and saying "Shut up or I'll kill you," Flynn said.
At some point, Flynn said, Brooks left the woman's car and drove away in his car. The woman wrote down the license plate number and contacted police. Metro officers got a warrant to search Brooks' house and arrested him, Flynn said.
"The woman had marks and bruises on her hands, face and back," he said.
Flynn would not reveal what, if anything, Brooks told investigators during questioning.
But any connection between Brooks and the woman was not clear this morning.
Metro Police officers are handling the criminal investigation while North Las Vegas Police will conduct an internal investigation to determine if department policies were violated.
Brooks, a crimes-against-persons detective, took an early retirement from the police department last year but returned to the department only a week before his arrest.
Detective Mike Mac Ban, president of the North Las Vegas Police Officer Association, said he has worked with Brooks and has always known him to be a good officer.
"He's a straight arrow and an exceptional policeman," Mac Ban said. "None of this makes any sense. It's really strange and totally out of character."
Brooks was involved in one other public scuffle in December 1998 with Officer Michael Thomas at police headquarters. Brooks was taking a statement from Thomas regarding a criminal complaint Thomas had filed about a month earlier.
In that complaint, Thomas accused fellow officer Dave Galyan, then head of the North Las Vegas Police Officers Association, of trying to run him over with a police car in the police headquarters parking lot on East Lake Mead Boulevard and Bruce Street. Investigators were taking Thomas' statement on the incident when the scuffle broke out.
Brooks said Thomas pushed him down from behind. Another detective, Michael Bodnar, said he went into the interview room after Brooks was called out. Bodnar said Thomas charged him and butted him with his head and shoulders. Thomas had said Brooks struck him first.
Thomas was charged with two counts of misdemeanor battery, but a judge in July acquitted him.
archive
