Charges stemming from alleged encounter anger Pope’s attorneys

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2000 | 10:45 a.m.

If Conan Pope had been anywhere but jail during an alleged sexual encounter with a male prostitute, the 15-year-old would be considered a victim.

But the Clark County District Attorney's office is charging Pope, who was in jail on charges that he killed his father, in the incident under a little-used statute that prohibits consensual sexual contact between incarcerated people.

That decision has Pope's attorneys fuming and asking that the District Attorney's Office be disqualified from prosecuting the murder case because of what they say is biased treatment of Pope. Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo is scheduled to rule on the issue Thursday.

Had Pope been out of jail the adult might have been charged with statutory sexual seduction, District Attorney Stewart Bell said. Whether the teen consented in the incident is not an issue, because under Nevada law, the age of consent is 16.

Pope faces murder charges in the Jan. 6 shooting death of his father, Frank Pope, 62, in adult court and the count of voluntary sexual contact between incarcerated persons in Juvenile Court.

Bell said his office is pursuing the sex charge, because the statutory seduction law doesn't apply to persons in jail.

"There are not the same rights for a person in custodial status as for a non-custodial person," Bell said Tuesday. "We looked at the issue raised by the defense and concluded it is not a valid one."

He said his office is going to resist the defense motion to disqualify it from prosecuting Pope.

Abbatangelo also is being asked to rule on two other motions involving a gag order and information about the incident that was leaked to the Las Vegas Sun.

Defense attorneys are seeking an evidentiary hearing to let them question under oath those with knowledge of the sex case about whether they were responsible for the leaks to the press.

Defense lawyers said they would not ask the Sun reporter to testify.

When allegations surfaced last week about the jail incident, Abbatangelo issued a gag order in the case, sealed the file and conducted a closed-door hearing.

But the story slipped out.

The closed hearing, according to Sun sources, was precipitated by the judge's decision to release Pope on house arrest to a family friend despite the pending murder charge.

Abbatangelo wanted to make sure the family friend was aware of the allegations that Pope had solicited the act and was still willing to accept the responsibility.

That family, sources said, included four children.

During the hearing, the family agreed to take Pope and he was released late last week.