Las Vegas Police Protective Association
Kirk Hooten
Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019 | 10 p.m.
The officer had at one point worked in Metro Police’s vice unit, which generally handcuffs sex trafficking suspects.
The now-retired Kirk Reed Hooten, 51, also had a history of picking up prostitutes, Metro alleges in an arrest affidavit released Wednesday.
And that’s what he was allegedly trying to do earlier this month when he encountered a petite 16-year-old girl waiting for a city bus in the central valley to take her to school.
Or as Hooten described her to detectives: “I thought she was cute. I thought she would have been one of the best-looking hookers in the area,” according to the affidavit. She was hauling a book bag.
Admittedly, Hooten said he’d “cat-called” the girl and asked if she was “working” and if she needed a ride — slang used in prostitution transactions. When she said no, he said, he stopped.
The girl told a more terrifying account of that Nov. 15 interaction near Martin Luther King and Bonanza Road.
She told detectives that a pickup truck approached her and slowed down. A man significantly taller than her rolled down the window and “demanded” that she get in the vehicle, the affidavit said. She had to say “no” three times before he left her alone, she said.
She then posted on social media that “sex trafficking and kidnapping” were real. A family member wrote a similar post that day, which garnered hundreds of shares and caught Metro’s attention.
The girl told police that she went inside a convenience store for safety and that Hooten had also parked and entered there to gamble, the affidavit said. The girl had a family member pick her up, and they took photos of Hooten’s vehicle, which Metro used to identify him.
Hooten later said he’d come across the girl at the store and realized that she was younger than he initially thought, the affidavit said. "When I saw her when I came out of the store, I realized, OK, now that is someone I shouldn’t have been yelling at for sure,” a detective wrote Hooten said.
Asked if he would’ve solicited the girl for prostitution, Hooten first said he had no money but later noted that “maybe if she was interested.”
Attorney David Chesnoff, who is representing Hooten, said the public should reserve judgement, noting that the “true facts” will come out in court.
Hooten was booked Thursday at the Clark County Detention Center on one count of being a customer engaging in soliciting a child for prostitution, Metro booking logs show.
Hooten, who retired from Metro in April, has since posted a $10,000 bond, court records show.
