Neighbor of youth charged with killing father painted bleak scene of family

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2000 | 4:40 a.m.

A neighbor of a man allegedly shot to death by his son told authorities more than two years ago that she was concerned about the safety of the man's two children.

A complaint filed with county officials in October 1997 paints a bleak portrait of the household run by Frank Pope, who was shot to death in the hallway of his home.

His son, 15-year-old Conan Pope, is charged with murder, in the shooting.

According to a county investigator's report obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the neighbor said Conan Pope and his sister, Desiree, were terrified of their father, who served four years in a Washington prison in the 1962 death of his infant daughter.

The neighbor said Frank Pope, whom authorities did not charge in connection with the complaint, had had custody of the two children for about six years because their mother was a prostitute and a drug abuser.

The neighbor told authorities the children were physically abused by their father during the two years she knew the family, which at the time was living in a mobile home park.

The neighbor, who was not identified in the report, said both children had told her their father forced them to shoplift.

She also said Frank Pope would touch his genitals in front of his children and had expressed his desire to have sex with some of his daughter's friends. The neighbor said she suspected both of the teens had been sexually abused but acknowledged that she had no proof.

She said the children denied to her any sexual abuse. Authorities said the children repeated those denials to those investigating the complaint.

The woman said she lodged the report after Desiree Pope, wrapped in a blanket, ran to her home and said her father was choking her brother. The girl said she feared Frank Pope would kill the boy and called police.

Conan Pope, now 15, is charged with murder with use of a deadly weapon in the Jan. 6 shooting death of his 62-year-old father at their southeast Las Vegas home.

Police have said the shooting followed a family argument that ended with the children being sent to their rooms. Conan Pope, who is free on house arrest, has said he was protecting his 16-year-old sister.

Prosecutors have disputed the teen's account, though, and his sister reportedly told police that she was in her room at the time of the shooting.