Public defender moves to stop hearing broadcast

Bill Gang

Friday, June 18, 1999 | 11:42 a.m.

A bid by the Las Vegas 1 cable news channel to broadcast live the June 25 preliminary hearing of the man charged in the Albertson's supermarket massacre will be challenged at a hearing Monday in Las Vegas Justice Court.

The public defender's office, which represents 23-year-old Zane Floyd, is asking Justice of the Peace James Bixler to prohibit the live broadcast of what is expected to be a day-long hearing.

Permission already has been granted by Bixler for television cameras to tape the proceedings, although local news stations only have time to broadcast tiny excerpts of the hearing that will determine if Floyd should stand trial on a stack of felony charges.

Four people died and one other was seriously wounded in the early-morning shotgun rampage through the supermarket at Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard on June 3.

Las Vegas 1 general manager Bob Stoldal said the channel will fight to air the hearing in what he said is "an important case the public needs to know about."

"The public has a right to know how the criminal justice system works," Stoldal said, noting that Las Vegas 1 recently aired a live broadcast of a controversial coroner's inquest over the shooting death of an unarmed man by a Metro Police officer.

Las Vegas 1 also was on the air live with the jury selection in the Jeremy Strohmeyer murder trial, which ended prematurely when he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting and murdering 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson at a Primm casino in 1997.

Attorney Dominic Gentile is going to represent Las Vegas 1, which combines its local resources with those of KLAS-TV Channel 8 and the Las Vegas Sun for daily broadcasts.

"I've been fighting for cameras in the courtrooms since 1976," said Stoldal, who was news director at the time for Channel 8.

He said he doesn't understand the concern over the live aspect broadcast vs. excerpts aired on local news shows on a delayed basis.

"We're allowed to videotape the whole case," he said. "How long should we delay? Fifteen minutes? The next day?"

Floyd, through Public Defender Curtis Brown, demanded his right to a speedy preliminary hearing as a way of ensuring that testimony would come out at a public court session rather than be heard by a grand jury behind closed doors.

A preliminary hearing gives defense attorneys a chance to question witnesses and victims while only prosecutors and jurors are allowed in grand jury proceedings.

Deputy District Attorney Bill Koot has said that about a dozen witnesses would be called to testify at the hearing.

In addition to four counts of first-degree murder, Floyd is facing three charges of attempted murder and four counts of sexual assault from an alleged incident that happened a short time before the supermarket shooting spree.

Brown already has been critical of the way Floyd has been presented to courtroom cameras, charging that the security mittens and bright orange vest placed on the ex-Marine and part time night club bouncer by jailers are unnecessary.