Hearing pits Metro against officer fired for ‘95 beating

Karen Zekan

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1998 | 11:10 a.m.

Metro Police attorneys are prepared today to offer testimony from six security guards and six officers in hopes of convincing the Civil Service Board to deny former Sgt. James Campbell the chance to get his old job back.

Metro attorney Al Marquis even mentioned the possibility of calling Andrew Dersch to the witness chair. Dersch is the convicted criminal and drug abuser whose videotaped beating by police inside a security office at the Fremont hotel-casino in 1995 led to jail time and department termination for Campbell and his former subordinate officers, Rob Phelan and Brian Nicholson.

Much of the testimony heard during the hearing, which began Monday afternoon in the Clark County Commission's chambers, was a virtual re-airing of the disturbing issues raised when the three stood trial after being indicted in 1995 on charges of oppression under the color of law after the Dersch incident.

They were convicted in 1996, but the verdict was thrown out because of a tainted juror. The former bike patrollers later plea-bargained to a reduced sentence that saw them serve jail time and house arrest.

William Terry, Campbell's defense attorney, insisted on the unfairness of his client's situation -- that the former sergeant's "exemplary service" during his 28-year career has been reduced to a board judging his actions on one day.

Terry also supplied the board's five members with hefty booklets of photocopies of numerous letters of thanks Campbell had received over the years from judges, superior officers and citizens. Also in the booklet were positive job evaluations from his time on the Metro force.

Marquis countered that Campbell threatened, condoned and participated in police brutality; attempted to destroy evidence; and tried to convince the hotel's security guards of a falsified version of the events leading up to the moment Dersch's head was cut.

"This case is remniscent of the Rodney King case," Marquis said in his opening statement Monday afternoon in the Clark County Commission chambers.

"It is a videotape of police brutality, a matter that probably would have gone undetected had it not been for the existence of the videotape. ... These three officers encouraged others to lie about what had occurred and made false reports to the department."

The videotape captures Campbell and Phelan arriving at the Fremont and demanding that Dersch -- accused of stealing a guest's coins earlier in the day -- state his true name during questioning. Phelan at one point pounds Dersch in the chest, then hauls him into a side room not equipped with a camera.

Dersch's moans are heard several times during the 20 minutes he is off camera. Phelan admitted that, during that time, he shoved Dersch to unsteady his footing to foil his alleged attempt to run out a side door. Dersch instead hit his head on a desk.

Nicholson had been accused of threatening to sodomize Dersch -- who was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood for those 20 minutes -- with his baton if he didn't give his name.

Board members Paula Gentile and Norma Phillips asked each man testifying how anyone could believe their claims that Dersch, a slight man, would try to flee the custody of three larger officers or the on-duty security officers -- as many as five seen on the video during the incident.

Campbell is seen off and on in the tape pointing to the surveillance camera and demanding that the security guards "get rid of it" -- a statement he defended on Monday as his way of saying he "wanted to teach (Phelan) a lesson about control."

"I've got a very outstanding young officer, and I don't need him criticized," Campbell said, recalling his reasoning at that moment in 1995. "I didn't want to see Rob Phelan damaged over making an instantaneous mistake."

Campbell similarly expressed an almost fatherly concern for Nicholson, stating he went along with the district attorney's plea-bargaining offer to avoid a second trial that would have proved too costly for the nearly bankrupt Nicholson.

The three former Metro men were questioned by Terry, Marquis and board members about inconsistencies in their statements made on tape and later under oath. All three insisted their foul language and threats of physical violence toward Dersch were "jokes" with no intended action behind them.

Phelan and Nicholson both acknowledged that, had Campbell told them to stop, they would not have let the violence against Dersch escalate.

Campbell himself took the stand, at least twice being silenced by Board Chairman Elgin Simpson for spouting off responses before Marquis had finished phrasing his questions.

"I'm not going to sit here and try to justify (the incident)," Campbell said when questioned by board member Gentile about why he didn't take control of his officers. "It was wrong. I should've grabbed the reins of the horse. I did not."

"I think the entire process is a sad spectacle and has gone a long way toward undermining whatever sympathy I had for Officer Phelan," said Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, during a break in the hearing.

Peck had previously voiced his concern about the potentially devastating impact a poor superior officer could have on a young officer new to the force.

"Based on the evidence presented, you would have to believe in the tooth fairy to believe Officer Phelan's version of what happened. It saddens me that it takes evidence tape recorded of this sort of incident to show how sometimes officers seem altogether too willing to cover for one another.

"It would be utterly outrageous if any of these men were reinstated. Maybe there will be more evidence to surface that can prove otherwise, but so far there has been nothing on the record to suggest these guys should be back in uniform."

More than eight hours of testimony had been offered by 10:15 p.m. when Board member Gentile offered a motion to deny Campbell's appeal. Finding no one to offer a second, Chairman Elgin Simpson adjourned the board for the night.

Marquis closed by adding that had Campbell halted his officers early on that fateful night of June 11, 1995, all probably would still have their jobs and there wouldn't have been a trial or an appeal.

"It makes you wonder what will happen in the future if Sgt. Campbell is reinstated on the police force -- how many times will this case be cited as precedent for justification for the use of excessive force and police brutality."