Shadowing the usual suspects

Keith Paul

Sunday, June 4, 2000 | 8:32 a.m.

George Jefferson walked out of the Clark County jail with his belongings tucked in a small plastic bag. The five-time convicted felon strolled to a bus stop and hopped a ride to the Boulevard mall.

Inside the mall the 46-year-old felon popped into store after store. He never realized six Metro Police detectives were watching his every move.

The six officers -- casually dressed in shorts and golf shirts -- make a living shadowing convicted felons. They are working on the well-proven theory that a felon with three, four, five or more convictions isn't likely to change his ways.

"We've known through studies that a small percent of the criminals commit the vast majority of the crimes," said Terry Miethe, a UNLV professor of criminal justice. "These are the revolving-door offenders and if you can do something with these repeat offenders, then there will be a major reduction in crime."

It's not like these repeat offenders set out on a life of crime, Miethe says. It's only after they are hardened by a few stretches in prison and then faced with their increasingly bleak job prospects that they turn to a career in crime, he said.

"The issue becomes the protection of society from the repeat offenders. The way to protect society from them is to take them out of society for as long as possible."

And that's where Metro's Repeat Offender Project goes to work.

The unit's 11 detectives have been covertly watching convicted felons since 1988. The day team concentrates on investigations and picking targets. The night crew then finds them and watches and waits.

"Sometimes we follow a guy, and he goes to work and goes home. We stay on him for a little while waiting to see if he will go back to his old ways," said Detective Mike King. "We look at the worst of the worst. I would love it if they decide the life of crime wasn't for them anymore, but that doesn't often happen."

The squad's primary targets are convicted burglars and robbers -- the crooks that most often elbow their way into regular citizens' lives.

"Some people may question why we go after burglars. I bet those are the people who have never had their house broken into," King said. "When someone's house is broken into their sense of safety is violated, and they may never feel the same again. That's why we're out here. If you rob or break into people's houses, remember there's a group of people waiting for you."

For each new target, the detectives prepare a detailed report that maps the felon's criminal history, habits and hangouts. The officers don't even count drug convictions, but they know that drugs are the criminal fuel for many of the people they watch.

Sgt. Clint Robison and his crew start each day with a briefing at an area restaurant. They recap the previous night's activities and plot that shift's strategy.

And then they head out and try to look like everyone else wandering around Las Vegas.

Detective Brad Nickell recently walked along a street with a beer bottle in his hand as he trailed a target offender.

"You wouldn't think I was a cop holding this," he said.

Some nights the detectives just sit in their cars waiting. And waiting.

Detective Russ Lee recently sat in his car watching a house where a convicted burglar lived.

"Some nights we just sit," Lee said.

Other nights the action starts with a phone call and quickly escalates.

On May 25 the team received word that an inmate at the county jail would be trying to escape by assuming the name of another inmate who was due to be released that day.

Robison contacted jail officials to alert them to the plot and convinced them to let inmate Alfred Perez "escape" -- at least for a few seconds.

When Perez, a six-time convicted felon, waltzed out the jailhouse door, the squad pounced on him and quickly booked him back into jail. He now faces additional escape charges.

"We weren't taking any chances with him. We let (the escape) happen because if we didn't, he would have tried it another time, and we may not have known about it," Robison said.

The repeat offenders have more than just plainclothes detectives to worry about. Prosecutors are waiting for their turn.

"When they go to this kind of trouble to catch a repeat offender, we put the effort into the prosecution," said Stewart Bell, Clark County district attorney. "We know that a career burglar is going to break into two or three houses every day he's on the street. If we've got a case we can win, we want the full pound of flesh."

That retribution can come in the form of what the detectives simply call "the bitch" -- a life sentence that can be handed out if prosecutors prove the defendant is a career criminal. And then there's "the little bitch," which adds up to an extra 20 years.

Last year the repeat offender squad snagged about 100 targeted felons who ended up with sentences that averaged from nearly three years to more than 12 years, said Sgt. Dave Levins, who heads the day team.

"Compare that to someone getting 12 to 18 months for an attempted burglary and the (repeat offender) targets are getting more time," he said. "All we're trying to do is (increase) the cost of them doing their business."

Convicted burglar Craig Michael Lentz is now paying the price.

Lentz has multiple convictions for burglary as well as a robbery rap. He is also suspected in a string of smash and grab break-ins, police say.

His return to jail started on a recent night with Robison visiting Lentz's father's house. From there Robison checked another house where Lentz was said to be staying. No luck.

Robison wandered around town talking to himself. "Where are you Craig? I know you're around here somewhere."

Then after talking to a friend of Lentz, Robison redirected his hunt to the burglar's old girlfriend's home. The detective sat down on some grass near the woman's apartment door and started waiting.

Forty-five minutes later, Lentz walked within 15 feet of Robison and into his old girlfriend's apartment.

"He's here. He just went in," Robison radioed to the rest of the team.

The detectives watched as Lentz came back out and loaded some electronic equipment into a car and sped away. Other detectives outside the complex picked up the tail and a Metro helicopter followed him in the air. Lentz stopped at a house and apparently sold the electronic gear and then headed back to his ex-girlfriend's apartment.

The squad normally doesn't arrest a suspect until a crime has been committed, but Lentz was already wanted on outstanding arrests warrants.

Robison decided not to wait to see if Lentz would commit another crime.

But as several of the undercover cars approached Lentz in his ex-girlfriend's Dodge Neon, the burglar sped away. A minute later marked patrol cars had him surrounded.

"I knew he was going to jail tonight," Robison said. "I could feel it."

The squad had a similar feeling about George Jefferson as the newly freed felon "shopped" at the Boulevard mall.

They knew his history.

Jefferson has been convicted in Indiana and Minnesota for robberies, auto theft and fraud. Not to mention that when he left the county jail he was facing burglary charges accusing him of stealing from stores.

And now Jefferson was back in the mall.

After about 90 minutes he went into a clothing store and came out with his plastic bag bulging more than it had been.

The undercover squad closed in and after a brief chase, detectives handcuffed him and then pulled brand new clothing out of his bag.

Jefferson was talkative and good-natured until Robison told him he was being charged with burglary.

"I didn't do no burglary," Jefferson said. "Larceny, maybe, but I didn't do no burglary. You just making stuff up as you go along."

Two hours and 45 minutes after walking out of jail, Jefferson was in the back of a police van heading back to where he started the day.

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