More problems hit UNLV cops

Monday, March 20, 2000 | 10:50 a.m.

In the wake of another incident involving questionable actions of the UNLV Police Department, a pair of meetings today were expected to help determine the direction of the embattled force.

Robert Ackerman, UNLV director of student services, was to meet with senior UNLV Police Sgt. Rochelle Sax today to ask her to take over day-to-day operations of the department but not to assume the title of acting chief.

On Friday Ackerman placed the acting UNLV chief, Sgt. Don Drake, and Sgt. Paul Harris on administrative leave with pay while the Nevada Division of Investigations probes their involvement in a March 9 drug raid on Boyd Hall, where a campus housing coordinator claims he was frisked and handcuffed.

Also a meeting of the Campus Public Safety Advisory Committee was set for 2:30 p.m. today at Alumni Hall to discuss the future of UNLV's police department and to possibly narrow to a dozen candidates the selection of a new chief.

"It is a shame because this police action was supposed to send a clear, positive message that illegal drugs on campus won't be tolerated, but now it is muddied up in a different controversy," Ackerman said today.

"Don had been providing good leadership. This police action appeared well-planned and well-conceived from my review. My concerns are that a staff member who was not briefed and not trained was used in this action."

Drake had replaced David Hollenbeck, who was removed as chief in November following complaints by students of numerous police abuses. Hollenbeck was reassigned to another UNLV management position.

A nationwide search for a new chief is still about two months from being completed, Ackerman said.

At the crux of the latest controversy was the use of Campus Housing Coordinator Mark Miles, a civilian who was pressed into service by UNLV Police to open doors. The campus police were accompanied by Metro Police officers and their drug-sniffing dogs.

Miles was told to open the dormitory doors with his keys, but after he apparently fumbled with the keys, police kicked in the doors to the six rooms and handcuffed several students.

Miles later asked to contact a supervisor and was frisked, handcuffed and shoved to the floor, according to a report Miles made to Ackerman.

The raid, which was conducted on a warrant signed by Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti, netted an arrest of a male student and the recovery of marijuana, ecstasy, opium and paraphernalia, UNLV Police said.

The State Peace Officers Council supported the actions of Drake and Harris: "The SPOC stands behind all the ... police officers in this matter and believes that the investigation will prove the inability of the university to administer a police department for the protection of the (campus) community."

The union, which maintains that university police statewide should be in the Nevada Department of Public Safety, said the raid was necessary because the university had not adequately addressed complaints of students and parents over drugs on campus.

The American Civil Liberties Union took exception to the way the raid was conducted and the police union's defense of the officers involved.

"There is a real rift between the police department and the administration," Gary Peck of the ACLU said. "There are no clear lines of authority regarding who reports to whom. There is a problem of accountability."

Peck said the police union's "effort to explain away this incident by blaming the university for its failure to deal with possible drug problems simply underscores how serious the problem is. If Mr. Miles' account of what happened is accurate, then I can't imagine any justification for the way the police behaved."

Ed Koch is a reporter for the Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4090 or by e-mail at koch@lasvegassun.com.