Neal ousted from Metro review board

Cathy Scott

Friday, March 20, 1998 | 10:04 a.m.

The state senator who sponsored a law to look into misconduct by cops has been ousted from the panel that is writing a local ordinance to review Metro Police officers.

Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, was absent at Thursday night's meeting when Metro Undersheriff Richard Winget made the motion to remove Neal from the Citizen Review Board advisory committee. It was the third session for the 16-member committee and Neal's third absence.

The committee voted 7-6 to remove Neal, as well as remove O.C. Lee, also an original member. Lee had turned in his resignation before the meeting began. Three citizens -- Jerry Lindsay, Patricia Davis-Grimes and Maragita Rebollao -- were voted in as new committee members.

During the 1997 Legislature, Neal successfully sponsored the bill that allows a police review board to be formed. The committee, formed in December, is drafting an ordinance that would set the review board in motion.

Several committee members argued that Neal should also have been given the opportunity to resign before voting him out.

"To remove Sen. Neal would be ill-advised," Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada American Civil Liberties Union and a committee member, said before the vote was taken. "He was one of the sponsors of the bill."

Elgin Simpson, also a committee member, said: "I'm one of the people who fought hard for this legislation with Sen. Neal. Neal has chosen to not attend. If you're interested, you have to be here. I'm not opposed to him being removed."

However, the Rev. James Rogers, representing the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said: "We don't have a resignation for Sen. Neal, and he authored this bill."

Neal said today, while he did not plan to resign from the panel, he doesn't have a quarrel with the committee's action.

"I always had a (meeting) conflict with the dates," he said. "I haven't had the time to attend. If removing me helps the committee to move forward to produce an ordinance, that's fine. I just want to see the best type of ordinance come out of this. I will continue to check and see what's going on. I have an obligation to do that."

Also approved at the meeting was a "mission statement," presented for approval to the committee "because there was some confusion as to what the committee's purpose is," said Franny Forsman, chairwoman of the committee. The mission statement, which was later unanimously approved, emphasized the independent funding and operation of the future citizen review board.

The citizen review board, once it's formed, will examine any misconduct by Metro officers.

The committee plans to meet at least twice more to revise language in a draft ordinance written by the district attorney's office.

While the last meeting was disrupted after two citizens heatedly argued that Metro should not be represented on the board, Thursday's meeting was peaceful.

Before the meeting began, Forsman, U.S. federal public defender, warned about 30 citizens who were in the audience that she would have them removed by a security officer, who was planted at the door, if they tried to disrupt the meeting.

"I have had a lot of feedback, mostly disappointment in the ability of the board to move forward," Forsman told the audience. "This committee is sincere and serious and I will not hesitate to have an unruly person removed if he doesn't remove himself voluntarily."

The ordinance, when it's finished being drafted by the committee, will be forwarded to city and county officials. If approved, the City Council would appoint 12 citizens and the County Commission would appoint 13 to the new board. The city and county share the responsibility for funding Metro.