Thursday, April 18, 2002 | 9:48 a.m.
Moments before the woman he allegedly assaulted was to take the stand, former North Las Vegas police officer Williams Brooks entered a plea agreement with prosecutors Wednesday.
Brooks pleaded guilty to coercion, a felony charge that will ensure he never works as a cop again. As a result of the plea agreement, District Judge John McGroarty can give Brooks probation or as much as six years in prison.
Brooks, who remains free on bail, will be formally sentenced June 19.
Chief Deputy District Attorney David Wall said coercion was the least serious of the charges jurors could have chosen to convict Brooks on. The other two charges were first-degree kidnapping and second-degree kidnapping.
"The difference between the three is intent and to this day we still don't know what his intent was," Wall said.
The plea agreement ensures Brooks will never wear a badge and forces him to admit some responsibility for the February 2000 attack on a Southwestern Bell engineer, Wall said.
Brook's attorney, Robert Lucherini, said his client didn't want to risk a conviction on a first-degree kidnapping charge, which carries a life sentence.
"It was tough, very tough," Lucherini said of Brooks' decision. "But David Wall is correct, the potential was too great."
Brooks, 44, was accused of accosting 36-year-old Lynn Malloy in the parking lot of a Rainbow Boulevard Home Depot on Feb. 20, 2000.
Wall told jurors during opening statements Tuesday that Brooks was moonlighting as an unlicensed private investigator when he assaulted Malloy, believing that she was the key to collecting a $30,000 drug debt owed to one of his clients.
Wall told jurors that Malloy was attacked from behind as she stepped into her Porsche and was struck about the head and face and nearly smothered by her attacker before she was able to get out of the car.
Once outside the car, Wall alleged Brooks threatened to kill Malloy with a gun before running off when bystanders began to approach them.
Brooks' plea agreement came after the testimony of Wall's first witness, Cynthia Barnum. She testified she saw Malloy's feet hanging outside of her car and a man attacking her.
Lucherini told jurors Tuesday Brooks was the victim of a setup by former police department co-workers and misperceptions on the part of Malloy.
Lucherini said Brooks was hoping to find the man behind some shady investment deals when he received an anonymous tip that the wife of the man would be waiting for him in a black Porsche at The Home Depot. The tip, Lucherini said, probably came from former North Las Vegas Officers Mike Thomas and John Armstrong who have a "great deal of hatred" for Brooks and the North Las Vegas police association.
Malloy was dating an attorney for the police association at the time of the incident, Lucherini said.
Lucherini also said that Malloy's recollection of the event is distorted because of her terror at the time.
Remarkably, Brooks stuck around with the attorneys to speak with jurors after he entered his plea agreement. Typically, defendants are in custody and aren't afforded the opportunity to do so. Nor would most choose to do so, particularly before being sentenced.
Brooks said he took the deal in part because as a black defendant appearing before an all-white jury, he felt he had an "uphill battle."
The former detective also said he hopes Malloy can "go on with her life" and he is given the ability to "regroup" after the experience.
"I never said 'I'm Mr. Nice Guy and I didn't do anything wrong,' but I just wanted it to be in context," Brooks said of allowing the case to go as far as it did.
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