Judge sets $50,000 bail for ex-lawmaker Steven Brooks

By Ken Ritter, Associated Press

Published Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014 | 9:58 a.m.

Updated Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014 | 1:21 p.m.

A Las Vegas judge set bail at $50,000 and ordered house arrest Thursday if a former Nevada state assemblyman is freed from jail pending a preliminary hearing on felony and misdemeanor allegations dating to a February 2013 scuffle with a police officer investigating a domestic dispute call.

Steven Brooks, who was returned in custody this week to Las Vegas after 16 months in a California county jail for a March 2013 freeway chase and fight with police, also is being held on $100,000 bail on a separate firearms charge.

That case stems from a January 2013 arrest that signaled the start of Brooks' public and sometimes bizarre spiral toward expulsion from the state Legislature.

It wasn't immediately clear Thursday if Brooks' family members could post $150,000 for his release before an Aug. 18 status check with Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melanie Andress-Tobiasson. Several family members and supporters were in the courtroom, but they declined comment.

Brooks' new attorney, Adam Gill, also declined to comment. Attorney Mitchell Posin previously represented Brooks but withdrew from the case.

Andress-Tobiasson set a preliminary hearing for Aug. 21 in the domestic disturbance case but granted Gill an Aug. 18 status check after the defense attorney indicated he wanted to try to arrange a plea deal.

Brooks is due before Clark County District Court Judge Abbi Silver the following day, Aug. 19, on a charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. He could get him up to four years in state prison if he's convicted.

That case stemmed from Brooks' arrest in January 2013 by North Las Vegas police investigating claims that the two-term Democratic assemblyman threatened to harm Marilyn Kirkpatrick, the Democratic Assembly leader. Kirkpatrick and Brooks both live in North Las Vegas.

Police said they found a silver .357-caliber revolver and ammunition in a shoebox in Brooks' state-issued car.

The Aug. 21 preliminary hearing would focus on Brooks' Feb. 10, 2013, arrest on a felony resisting an officer with a weapon and three lesser charges. He is accused of fighting with Las Vegas police called to a domestic argument involving him and his estranged wife, Ada.

A succession of sometimes bizarre incidents followed before Brooks became the only Nevada lawmaker ever to be stripped of his elected position and was arrested after a high-speed freeway chase and a fight with police and a police dog in California.

Brooks pleaded no contest in March in Victorville, California, to evading a peace officer and resisting arrest. He was sentenced last month to time already served.