Cop rearrested on eight charges

Cathy Scott

Wednesday, Feb. 12, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Metro Police Officer Arthur Sewall, arrested and charged Saturday in the attempted rape of a prostitute, has been rearrested, this time on kidnapping and sexual assault charges.

According to sources close to the Sewall family, Sewall was arrested at his home about 10 p.m. Tuesday and was told by two officers that there would be no bail.

Sewall, 30, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on two counts of kidnap, three counts of rape and three counts of oppression under the color of office. He was held without bond pending a bail hearing Thursday in Justice Court, a jail spokeswoman said.

On Saturday, the six-year police veteran was arrested on charges of attempted rape and oppression under the color of law. He posted $6,000 bail five hours after police said he was caught on videotape by undercover officers in the Del Mar Motel at 1411 Las Vegas Blvd. South, about a half-block north of the Stratosphere Tower.

The woman, who reported to police that Sewall had raped her earlier, was used as a decoy at the motel while undercover vice and sexual assault officers waited in an adjoining room, videotaping the encounter. Sewall was called to the motel to check out a call about a noisy television in a motel room. The woman answered the door, and Sewall went inside alone.

Sewall allegedly tried to force the woman into performing oral sex on him under the threat of being arrested for felony drug possession. Undercover agents, in an adjoining room, taped the entire incident, police said.

Police administrators did not return calls today for comment.

About two months ago, Sewall was returned to a patrol unit working out of the downtown substation. He had been transferred to the downtown bike patrol as a disciplinary measure after he was caught by supervisors using his patrol car to pick up and drop off his wife from her escort-service job.

For about three years, prostitutes have reported that a downtown patrol officer had sexually assaulted them. Police would not say if the new charges were connected to those allegations.