Prostitute makes deal in Pope case

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2000 | 9:48 a.m.

The male prostitute alleged to have engaged in a voluntary sexual encounter in the Clark County Detention Center with 15-year-old murder defendant Conan Pope has agreed to a plea bargain in his case.

Deputy District Attorney Christopher Lalli said Tuesday that Reginald Fox waived his preliminary hearing and agreed to plead guilty to a felony count of having voluntary sex while being a prisoner.

Fox is scheduled to enter his plea on Feb. 29 in District Judge Joseph Bonaventure's courtroom.

Lalli said that in the deal, the district attorney's office will recommend a 12- to 30-month sentence, although Fox's lawyer is free to seek probation for the man who currently is serving a jail term for a gross misdemeanor count of open and gross lewdness.

Fox has a history of prostitution arrests in addition to a 1995 conviction for gross misdemeanor count of battery with substantial bodily harm.

The alleged sexual encounter in the jail with Pope in January resulted in the teenager being held in solitary confinement and cries from his lawyers for his release on house arrest. But the best that District Judge Mark Gibbons would offer was incarceration at the county's juvenile detention center.

Pope is charged with murder in the shooting death of his father, 62-year-old Frank Pope, on Jan. 6.

Police reports indicate that Frank Pope sent his children to their rooms during a tirade over unwashed dishes, but police said Conan Pope emerged moments later with a .357-caliber rifle and shot his father.