Dersch receives prison time

Bill Gang

Thursday, April 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Andrew Dersch, whose videotaped battering by Metro Police bicycle patrol officers resulted in felony convictions for them earlier this month, will be calling prison home at least for the next few months.

Dersch has admitted being a petty thief for years with a string of misdemeanor convictions before he was roughed up by the police in a security room at the Fremont hotel-casino last summer.

But he finally received a felony conviction for entering a downtown casino to steal money from an elderly gambler.

In court Wednesday for his sentencing, Dersch admitted it was a crime he had repeated "a million times."

"I didn't do it because I didn't want to work. I did it because I have a disease (cocaine addiction)," he said. "It's no excuse but it is the truth."

The 40-year-old Dersch told District Judge Bill Maupin that he has been using drugs since age 13.

His attorney, Robert Archie, asked that Dersch be given probation and put into a drug rehabilitation program rather than be given the prison term the state Parole and Probation Department recommended.

"The question is, can we make him productive or do we just throw him away?" Archie said.

Dersch told the judge: "Let me show you I can do this."

But Maupin concluded the defendant's request was "simply a continuation of his manipulations."

He then sentenced Dersch to 12 to 30 months in prison, noting that the drug program will still be available when he gets out.

Dersch must serve the 12 months before he will be eligible for parole.

Dersch pleaded guilty in a plea bargain to felony attempted burglary for entering the Golden Nugget on Christmas Eve with the intent to steal a bucket of coins from a 78-year-old gambler.

Dersch also pleaded guilty recently to a petty theft charge for snatching about $100 in coins from a 66-year-old gambler at the Sands hotel-casino in October. He spent a few days in the county jail for that misdemeanor act.

But Dersch gained his notoriety after he was apprehended by security guards at the Fremont hotel-casino on June 11 after another theft was recorded by security cameras there.

Metro bicycle patrol officers were called, but when Dersch gave a false name the situation became violent.

That incident resulted in the three officers -- Sgt. James Campbell and officers Brian Nicholson and Robert Phelan -- being convicted last week on felony and gross misdemeanor charges, including oppression under the color of office.

They will be sentenced May 24 by District Judge Lee Gates and could face six years in prison.