Local news briefs for October 4, 2000

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2000 | 10:54 a.m.

Former coach withdraws plea

A former youth league baseball coach has withdrawn his guilty plea on 39 sex-related counts.

Garen Martin Pearson, 41, had agreed to plead guilty to a variety of sex-related charges involving seven young boys in June, but on Tuesday he backed out of the deal.

District Judge Michael Douglas allowed Pearson to withdraw his plea because he claimed that he had been led to believe he could not claim the acts were consensual, Chief Deputy District Attorney Tom Carroll said. Now that he believes he has a viable defense, he wants to go to trial.

Had Pearson gone through with the deal he would have spent at least 20 years in prison. Now he faces multiple life terms if convicted at trial.

No trial date has been set.

No cause of death determined

An autopsy today will determine what killed a man found behind a building in the 2600 block of South McLeod Drive.

Metro Police said the man, believed to be 35 years old, had been dead for some time. A cause of death was not readily apparent at the scene, police said.

The man, who may have been homeless, was not positively identified as of this morning.

Device found and detonated

Nellis Air Force Base munitions experts, following a several-hour search over public lands 17 miles north of the base, detonated a 2,000-pound bomb that one of its disabled airplanes had jettisoned.

The bomb was one of two that had been released from an A-10 aircraft after the plane experienced engine problems about 10 p.m. Monday. Nellis crews began searching for the unexploded munition shortly after sunrise and found it about 1 p.m. Tuesday, base officials said.

The other bomb had detonated upon impact. Both bombs caused small fires that were allowed to burn out on their own, base officials said.

Driver receives 5 years probation

A 35-year-old Las Vegas man was given up to five years probation Tuesday in connection with an accident that took the life of a friend.

Steven Wainman pleaded guilty to felony reckless driving and misdemeanor driving under the influence in the January 1998 death of Lee Norman, 29.

Prosecutors offered Wainman a deal when evidence came to light that indicated Wainman could have suffered an allergic reaction to medication that caused him to black out at the wheel of his pickup.

The truck hit a dirt median on U.S. 95 near Indian Springs and then rolled several times.

Norman, an Evansville, Ind. resident, died at the scene. His fiancee, Tammy Rusch, 37, was seriously injured but survived.

Former TV anchor takes new job

Sarah Ralston, former head of the Mandalay Resort Group community relations division, has been hired by UNLV as a community relations specialist, the school said.

Ralston will begin Oct. 9 on a consulting contract that pays $8,500 a month with no benefits, which would come to $102,000 if she works a full year. Her contract will be reviewed after nine months.

Ralston, a former television news anchor, will be paid through money donated to the UNLV Foundation for a community relations specialist, the school said.