911 recording lands ‘victim’ behind bars; ‘suspect’ walks free

Bill Gang

Thursday, Oct. 7, 1999 | 11:23 a.m.

For 17 days 19-year-old Justin Tait sat in the Clark County Detention Center facing felony charges that he had knifed his buddy's mother.

But in a high-tech boomerang Wednesday, the victim found herself put behind bars on a perjury charge while Tait walked out of the Clark County Detention Center a free man.

The incident that led to Tait's arrest was memorialized in Connie Wicker's call to 911 from a cellular telephone. As is standard the call was recorded to be used later as evidence.

Wicker frantically told the emergency operator that her back had been slashed when a confrontation with her son over his purported drug use turned violent. Tait, her son's friend, was alleged to have intervened and pulled a knife that he used on her and waved at another man.

The tape recording became a key piece of evidence Wednesday at Tait's preliminary hearing in Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo's courtroom.

But it exonerated Tait and implicated Wicker.

It was a result that before this week would not have occurred -- at least not until an eventual trial and maybe not even then.

Deputy District Attorney Melisa De La Garza said there was some muttering on the tape that could not be deciphered on the standard tape player available in the DA's office.

Then a high-tech audio tape enhancement system that had been ordered for the office arrived this week.

"It was quite a coincidence," the prosecutor said.

De La Garza explained that when a technician was demonstrating the system Tuesday, she took Wicker's 911 tape to see what could be revealed.

What came out was that Wicker had caused her own injuries.

On the tape the woman could be heard directing an unknown person to take her keys and scratch her back with them.

When Metro officers arrived at the scene at 6250 Hargrove Ave., near U.S. 95 and Jones Boulevard, they found marks clawed into the woman's back.

De La Garza said she didn't inform Wicker of what the new equipment had revealed and let the woman testify under oath about her version of events.

As expected Wicker followed her version in a police report and told Abbatangelo how she and one of her son's friends, 19-year-old Terrence Ford, had gone to confront her son when Tait interceded.

When the enhanced version was played in court, Wicker offered no explanation.

De La Garza then asked that Wicker be arrested, and the judge's bailiff slipped a pair of handcuffs on the woman as she stood in surprise and disbelief. In addition to the felony perjury count, Wicker is charged with a misdemeanor count of filing a false police report and a gross misdemeanor count of misusing 911.

The prosecutor then asked Abbatangelo to dismiss the charges against Tait of battery with a deadly weapon over the injuries to Wicker and assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly lunging with a knife at Ford. Had he been convicted he could have been sentenced to a maximum of 6 to 16 years in prison.

Ford did not testify at the preliminary hearing and De La Garza said there were no plans to file charges against him, although he had authored a police report alleging Tait tried to injure him.

The prosecutor said she has no evidence about who actually inflicted the injury on Wicker.