Attorney says former cop set up in extortion case

Kim Smith

Monday, April 15, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.

A former North Las Vegas officer going on trial this week on kidnapping and extortion charges may have been set up by fellow law enforcement officers, his attorney says.

Jury selection was slated to begin this morning in the trial of William Brooks.

Brooks, 44, faces five felony counts in connection with an incident that took place Feb. 20, 2000, in the parking lot of The Home Depot on South Rainbow Boulevard.

If convicted, Brooks could face a life sentence.

The prosecution alleges that Brooks, moonlighting as a private investigator, assaulted a 36-year-old woman during an extortion attempt.

Brooks' attorney, Robert Lucherini, said he intends to prove it wasn't extortion, but a case of mistaken identity.

According to court documents, Brooks confronted the woman as she was getting into her black Porsche after picking up a few items at The Home Depot.

The woman told police Brooks wouldn't allow her to close her door, and when she began to scream, he struck her in the head and face and grabbed her hair.

After she ripped Brooks' glasses off his face, the woman claimed, Brooks placed his hand around her neck and mouth. After she got out of the car, Brooks pulled a gun and threatened to kill her if she didn't stop screaming, according to court documents.

When other people in the parking lot began to approach them, the woman said, Brooks jumped into a truck and fled. He was arrested when police tracked him down through the license plate the woman remembered.

Lucherini said Brooks was sent to The Home Depot by people who told him a blonde woman in a Porsche was the wife of a man he was searching for. The wife, he was told, could tell him where her husband was.

The husband, Brooks said, owed investors a great deal of money.

Lucherini said he hopes to prove Brooks was purposely sent to confront the wrong woman.

"I believe he was set up," Lucherini said. "I don't know if he was set up by ex-cops that didn't really like him or by defendants that he'd arrested on other occasions or by someone else, but he was set up."

Lucherini declined to provide specifics, saying he preferred to wait until trial.

In addition, Lucherini said, the woman misunderstood Brooks' actions.

"When he tapped her on the shoulder it just scared the living daylights out of her," Lucherini said. "She screamed and she panicked. She did what anyone else would do in her situation, she started fighting."

His client may have accidentally struck the woman while trying to calm her down. As for the gun, it accidentally came out of Brooks' coat pocket while she was flailing around, Lucherini said.

One of the people he intends to call at trial is a Seattle memory expert who will testify how people's perceptions of an event can be affected or changed by a traumatic event, Lucherini said.