Metro officer’s punishment blasted

Cathy Scott

Friday, Sept. 19, 1997 | 10:09 a.m.

A Metro Police detective's punishment for pulling a gun on a citizen isn't enough for the man who was at the other end of the barrel, he and his attorney say.

At 8:25 p.m. on Aug. 2, off-duty Metro Police Detective Glenn Thomas, 43, drew his weapon and pointed it at 21-year-old Matthew Adams. This happened after Thomas stopped Adams, because of a traffic altercation, in the parking lot of the Sahara Pavilion shopping center on Sahara Avenue at Decatur Boulevard.

After an internal affairs bureau investigation determined Thomas' behavior was conduct unbecoming an officer, Thomas was handed a two-week suspension, police officials said.

That's not good enough for "terrorizing" a citizen, American Civil Liberties Union attorney Gary Peck said.

"That officer is not getting counseling and is being sent out on the street with a loaded gun," Peck said. "He could explode again."

Adams responded: "I simply want to say that I am angry and hurt at having had a gun pointed at me by Officer Thomas, that I am even angrier at having been placed in handcuffs and treated like I was a criminal, and that I am angrier still at the fact that little has been done to insure that Officer Thomas does not do this type of thing again."

Peck, who met with Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones Thursday to discuss the implementation of a citizen's review board, which was approved by this year's Legislature, said, "Metro and the district attorney are on notice" that we're unhappy with Thomas' discipline" and expect further action.

"If ever there was a case that underscores the need for a civilian review board to look into allegations of police misconduct at Metro, the Glenn Thomas case is it," Peck said. "The investigation as well as the discipline were wholly inadequate."

Peck and Adams, as well as Adams parents, Gary and Beth Bishop, were to hold a news conference on the steps of the Clark County Courthouse today to denounce the decision by Metro and the district attorney's office to not pursue a criminal investigation.

"The district attorney's office ought to do its job and investigate this," Peck said. "What happened was outrageous and the actions they took were wholly inadequate, and they need to get off their behinds and get on with the business of investigating this matter thoroughly."

Police officials said that internal affairs investigators conducted the investigation as a personnel matter and sustained the charge against Thomas. A criminal case has not been opened.