Published Monday, Aug. 21, 2017 | 1:02 p.m.
Updated Monday, Aug. 21, 2017 | 1:25 p.m.
Kenneth Lopera
A suspended police officer was arraigned Monday on a manslaughter charge in the on-duty chokehold death of an unarmed man he chased outside a Las Vegas Strip resort last May.
Kenneth Lopera was not asked to enter a plea, and a Las Vegas justice of the peace allowed him to remain free on $6,000 bail pending a Sept. 25 preliminary hearing of evidence in the death of Tashii S. Brown.
Lopera, 31, is the first Las Vegas police officer to face a manslaughter charge since 1990. He also is charged with oppression under color of office, and could face up to eight years in prison if he is convicted of both charges.
Brown's death spawned protest, a federal excessive force and wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Brown's children, and calls for Las Vegas police to quit teaching to officers a restraint technique called lateral vascular neck restraint.
Defense attorneys Tony Sgro and David Roger, and Las Vegas Police Protective Association official Steve Grammas who also attended Lopera's brief court appearance, declined afterward to comment. Grammas has said Lopera did nothing criminal and was using a department-approved method to restrain Brown.
Brown, 40, also used the name Tashii Farmer. An autopsy found that he was intoxicated by methamphetamine and had an enlarged heart, but the Clark County coroner ruled that his May 14 death was from asphyxiation due to the police chokehold.
Police said a sweaty, agitated and disoriented Brown approached Lopera and another patrol officer early May 14 in a Venetian resort coffee shop, said he thought someone was after him, and then fled through employee-only hallways into a parking area behind the hotel.
Lopera's body camera showed that he gave chase, and police later said the officer reported that he thought Brown was going to try to carjack a pickup truck.
Police said Lopera violated several departmental policies when he zapped Brown with a stun gun seven times, repeatedly punched him in the head and neck, and then restrained Brown from behind for more than a minute with what was described as an unapproved chokehold.
Officials said Lopera told other police at the scene that he subdued Brown using a "rear naked choke."
The technique, familiar in the world of mixed martial arts, is supposed to restrict blood flow through the carotid artery to the brain without impeding breathing.
Lopera was suspended without pay following his arrest June 5.
Three Las Vegas police officers were indicted on involuntary manslaughter and oppression charges following the July 1990 chokehold death of 39-year-old Charles Bush. Their trial ended when a jury deadlocked, and they were not retried.
