Mistaken identity claimed in alleged attack

Keith Paul

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2000 | 11:25 a.m.

When off-duty North Las Vegas Police Detective William Brooks grabbed a woman in a Home Depot parking lot over the weekend, he said he thought he had the wife of a man who owed $30,000 he was being paid to collect.

He was wrong. The woman he grabbed wasn't the wife of the man who owed the money. She was a 36-year-old Las Vegas woman who knew nothing about the debt, the detective said.

Brooks, in an interview Tuesday in the visitors room at the Clark County Detention Center, said he was hired to collect the money and was going to be paid $10,000, but he wouldn't name the person who hired him. He hasn't told Metro Police detectives either.

"I knew five seconds into it that she was the wrong woman, but she was terrified and didn't hear the things I was saying," Brooks said. "I was trying to back out of it. She was screaming."

Brooks, a 10-year veteran with North Las Vegas Police Department, backed out and got in his car. But the woman wrote down his license plate and reported the incident to Metro Police. Brooks was charged Sunday with attempted kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and battery. He was released early this morning on $53,000 bond.

According to the 36-year-old woman's statement to Metro Police, Brooks grabbed her from behind, forced her into her car and struggled with her. Brooks also is accused of striking her several times, then pulling his gun, pointing it at her and saying "Shut up or I'll kill you," Metro Deputy Chief Ray Flynn said.

Brooks denies pulling his gun on the woman, saying it fell to the floorboard of the car during the struggle with the woman and he was only picking it up.

"I apologized to her," he said. "She was never in any danger."

He said he thought she was the wife of the man who owed the money, and he planned to get her to call her husband on a cell phone.

He doesn't deny approaching the woman, but says the attempted kidnapping charge is unfounded.

He may be right. Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell said Tuesday the evidence may not support the attempted kidnapping charge and Metro detectives are talking with some other people to get more information before deciding what charges Brooks will face.

"It's safe to say if you accost someone with a gun, there will be charges filed," Bell said. "Imagine being a lady minding her own business and going to her car after shopping. All of a sudden a stranger threatens you with a gun and you don't know what's going to happen. I can't imagine a more terrifying situation."

Flynn said the charges will probably be refiled as coercion, battery with a deadly weapon and burglary. Since Brooks posted bail, his hearing in Justice Court originally scheduled for this morning will be held at a later date.

Brooks left the North Las Vegas Police Department in September, taking an early retirement to pursue other business opportunities, but he says that he was also doing some "private eye-type work" for people. He returned to the force Feb. 14.

His collection job started before he came back to the police department. He knew that he needed approval from the department for any off-duty job.

Brooks never asked for permission, North Las Vegas Police spokesman Lt. Chris Larotonda said. The policy is in place, he said, to ensure that officers don't moonlight at jobs that may pose a conflict of interest. He added the department did not know of Brooks' off-duty work.

Brooks, 42, was suspended Sunday with pay from his detective's position that pays him about $60,000 a year, Larotonda said.

North Las Vegas Police are conducting an internal investigation that could end with Brooks being fired.

Brooks says he still wants to be a police officer, but doesn't know what his department will do.

"I hope I don't get fired, but if I did, I couldn't say a word," he said.

He has refused to tell Metro Police who hired him, but said that could change if he were facing "serious time" in prison.

Brooks admits he created the situation himself.

"No excuses," he said. "I'm going to catch what I deserve out of this."

Keith Paul covers crime and public safety for the Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4057 or by e-mail at keith@lasvegassun.com