House arrest denied; judge OKs transfer to juvenile center

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

District Judge Mark Gibbons again rejected a request to let 15-year-old Conan Pope out of jail on house arrest, despite the insistence of his attorneys that a ninth grader doesn't belong behind bars in an adult jail.

But the judge ruled Monday that the teenager charged in the Jan. 6 shooting death of his father can be moved to the Clark County Juvenile Court's detention center as soon as there is an opening.

Until then, the judge declared, county jail officials no longer have to house Pope in a solitary confinement cell that Deputy Special Public Defender Kristina Wildeveld complained has him "caged like an animal."

Pope is in the Clark County Detention Center with adults, because juveniles charged with murder or attempted murder are automatically certified as adults under Nevada law.

A total of 24 juveniles are housed in the adult facility, according to jail officials, but Pope is the only one in a solitary cell.

He was placed in the confines of a single cell and locked down for 23 hours a day after a sexual encounter with another inmate.

Deputy Special Public Defender Dayvid Figler complained that Pope originally was housed in a protective custody module at the jail with child molesters.

While defense attorneys kept referring to Pope as a "child" or a "ninth grader," Deputy District Attorney Melisa De La Garza snapped in response, "This isn't just an innocent ... he committed a grievous crime. The state is trying to protect the community.

"They can't slide under the rug the fact that he shot his father," the prosecutor said.

Gibbons already had ruled that Pope poses "a danger to the community" and said Monday that nothing has changed his mind or his decision that the teenager shouldn't be released on house arrest.

The judge had heard testimony that a week before 62-year-old Frank Pope was shot to death, he told a neighbor that Conan Pope had threatened his life.

A friend of the defendant said Pope also had threatened to kill another teenager who had been harassing him.

Gibbons said the Juvenile Detention Center is the best alternative he can offer to the defense team, although they continued to insist that the only acceptable solution is house arrest.

Wildeveld reminded the judge that Frank Pope was convicted of killing his child in 1962 and said he may have been responsible for another murder, although she did not specify who that victim might be.

Conan Pope's mother disappeared about seven years ago and efforts to locate her have been unsuccessful.

Gibbons said he has been told by Juvenile Judge Robert Gaston that the juvenile facility is overcrowded, but the population is always in a state of flux and Pope can be moved there as soon as there is an opening.

Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent said the court system needs to consider the impact on the other Juvenile Detention Center inmates of having a person accused of murder among them.

That prompted Gibbons to caution Pope that he "better be a model prisoner" in the juvenile facility.

Pope nodded his head affirmatively.