NLV cop won’t name employer in parking lot incident

Keith Paul

Friday, Feb. 25, 2000 | 10:06 a.m.

A North Las Vegas Police detective charged with attempted kidnapping still won't say who he was working for when he accosted a woman with a gun while trying to collect a $30,000 debt.

"It doesn't make sense if he was working for a legitimate business not to tell us who he was working for," Metro Deputy Chief Ray Flynn said. "It leaves a lot of speculation on the potential for working for criminals. Since he won't tell us, it only leaves us to speculate at this point."

In an interview Tuesday, Detective William Brooks, 42, said that he might name names if he was "looking at serious time" in prison.

Flynn said that sounds "like a veiled threat to his employers."

But Brooks' attorney, Robert Lucherini, says who employed the detective is not the issue.

"I don't think it's important to bring someone else into this and embarrass them," he said. "Metro is just doing their job, but when the facts come out the case will be closed."

Brooks was charged Sunday with attempted kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and battery. He was released from the Clark County jail on $53,000 bail Wednesday morning.

Brooks said in an interview while still in jail that he was hired to collect a $30,000 debt for which he would be paid $10,000. He had information that the wife of the man who owed the money was at the Home Depot parking lot on Alta Drive and Rainbow Boulevard, but he targeted the wrong woman.

The woman in her statement to police accused Brooks of striking her, pulling out his gun and saying, "Shut up or I'll kill you,"' in the parking lot about 10:40 a.m Sunday, Flynn said.

Since he bonded out of jail, Brooks has declined to comment and referred questions to Lucherini.

Lucherini denies the detective pointed a gun at the woman. Lucherini said the 36-year-old woman kicked Brooks, knocking his gun to the ground and that Brooks was simply picking it up.

Brooks left the North Las Vegas Police Department in September after 10 years. He has said he opened a music promotion business and was doing "some private eye stuff" on the side. On Feb. 14 he was reinstated as a detective. He said he had started the job collecting the debt before he returned to the police department.

The North Las Vegas Police Department has a policy that all officers must ask permission for any off-duty jobs and had not received any such requests from Brooks, said Lt. Chris Larotonda, department spokesman.

Brooks was suspended with pay Sunday night and faces an internal investigation of the incident. He could face punishment up to being fired.