News briefs

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 11:39 a.m.

Telemarketer sentenced to jail

CARSON CITY -- District Judge Sally Loehrer Wednesday sentenced Brian Crawford, 46, of Las Vegas to one year in the county jail for his part in an illegal telemarketing scheme that targeted elderly people.

Crawford, who worked for Century Pacific Group, was also ordered to pay $3,218 to victims. He pleaded guilty to the gross misdemeanor conspiracy to commit unregistered telemarketing.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said salesmen at Century Pacific, 6985 West Sahara Ave., told senior citizens they had won sweepstakes prizes but they had to pay $699 to collect them. In return they got a package worth less than $40, Del Papa said.

The co-defendants were Darin Notaro, 25, and Thomas O'Donnell, 37, who were both sentenced to one year in the county jail; Jeffrey S. Klingenberg, 28, who was placed on probation and James E. Smith, 26, whose 18 months sentence was suspended, but he was ordered to make $257,814 in restitution to the victims.

Former doctor guilty in hiring hit man

A former Beverly Hills, Calif., plastic surgeon has pleaded guilty to two counts of solicitation to commit murder for trying to hire a hit man to kill his wife.

Dr. Ian Brown, who has given up his medical license and is living in Mexico, appears headed for probation as part of Wednesday's plea bargain but will have to pay a $20,000 fine during the first year of his probation.

District Judge Sally Loehrer said she expects a substantial payment to have been made by the March 22 sentencing date.

Brown admitted he tried to hire a would-be hit man at the Rio hotel-casino by offering him $20,000 to kill Brown's wife. But the man contacted Metro Police, which began an investigation.

Brown's wife, Judy Sommers Brown, was not injured in the scheme.

Police recover small pipe bomb

Metro Police recovered a small pipe bomb from a car in the 1900 block of east Tropicana Wednesday night.

The bomb was discovered by the Las Vegas Criminal Apprehension Team as they took a man into custody for failing to register as an ex-felon about 7:30 p.m.

"They were targeting someone out there and they noticed a device inside his car," Lt. Csaba Maczala said. "The fire department came out and recovered the device."

Reputation precedes apprehension team

The Las Vegas Criminal Apprehension Team had its reputation precede itself in a Tuesday afternoon arrest.

The apprehension team, made up of law enforcement officers from the FBI, U.S. Marshal Service and North Las Vegas, Henderson and Metro Police, arrested a man wanted in New Hampshire on gun charges about 2 p.m.

Douglas P. Mills, 31, was arrested at a friend's house in the 1700 block of Palo Alto Circle on charges of interstate transportation of firearms and receiving stolen firearms.

The homeowner at that address did not know that Mills was wanted, but did tell officers that he has just finished watching an MSNBC report on fugitives and Las Vegas' apprehension team, Sgt. Al Cervantes said.

Rancho Drive to be closed

A closure of Rancho Drive between Teddy Drive and Desert Inn Road is scheduled for this weekend.

The closure will begin at about 7 p.m. Friday and no traffic will be allowed onto the roadway until Monday at 6 a.m.

Workers will be working around the clock on the Rancho Drive Improvement Project, that will include installing new flood control boxes. The project began on Jan. 3 and will cost the city $840,000. It is scheduled to be finished in early April.