Dismissal of charges sought for teen in slaying of father

Kim Smith

Monday, April 3, 2000 | 10:36 a.m.

Attorneys for a Las Vegas teen accused of killing his father earlier this year were scheduled to fight this afternoon to have the charges dismissed.

Special Deputy Public Defenders Kristina Wildeveld and Dayvid Figler hoped to convince District Judge Mark Gibbons that prosecutors acted inappropriately during grand jury proceedings in the Conan Pope case.

According to police, Pope, 15, killed his father Jan. 6 after his father flew into a rage over a sink filled with dirty dishes. The father smashed some of the dishes and sent the youth and his sister to their rooms.

Prosecutors contend Pope came out of his room with a .357-caliber Magnum and shot his father. Defense attorneys say Pope shot his father after seeing him walk toward his sister's room carrying a broom.

At the heart of the defense's case is the allegation that Frank Pope, 62, was physically, emotionally and sexually abusive to his children. The elder Pope was convicted of smothering and killing an infant daughter in 1962.

According to documents filed by the defense, prosecutors didn't discuss voluntary manslaughter or justifiable homicide with grand jurors. Instead, prosecutors discussed only the parts of the law that they liked, the attorneys claim.

Moreover, Wildeveld and Figler claim the prosecutors interrupted the proceedings when a grand juror asked a family friend of the Popes if Frank Pope was abusive and about his drinking habits.

"The prosecutor had a duty to remain silent and allow the grand jury member to make the relevant inquiry," court documents state. "Instead the prosecutor prevented testimony that would likely be favorable to the petitioner and relevant to a manslaughter or justifiable homicide determination."

The defense said the district attorney's office was concerned that Conan Pope had been released by a justice of the peace on house arrest and hurried to get an indictment so the case could be moved to District Court and the boy could be put back behind bars.

By hurrying, prosecutors didn't even do a "cursory" investigation into child-abuse allegations or present what little they did know to the grand jury, the defense attorneys contend.

"There are records that dot the country whereupon Child Protective Services were constantly investigating and at times taking the children into their custody and away from Frank Pope's wrath of violence," Figler wrote in his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. "None of this evidence whatsoever was presented" to the grand jury.

Figler wrote that the prosecutors' actions show "conscious indifference at its most disturbing."

Pope is being held in a Clark County Detention Center cell by himself. Whenever the other inmates are on lock-down status, he is allowed free time and television access. He is also allowed visits from tutors.

Kim Smith covers courts for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2321 or by e-mail at kimberly@lasvegassun.com.