Security chief ties detective to method of lounge holdup

Kim Smith

Thursday, April 18, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

A Metro Police detective charged with robbery may have learned his technique on the job, a grand jury was told.

Jack Brandon, a 14-year Metro veteran, is accused of pepper-spraying two United Coin employees inside Rae's Restaurant and Lounge in Henderson on Feb. 22 and and making off with an undisclosed amount of cash in his Metro-issued car.

According to grand jury transcripts released Wednesday, Brandon is alleged to have worn bandages over his face, sunglasses and a baseball cap during the heist.

The grand jury indicted Brandon on multiple counts, including robbery. His trial is scheduled for June 10 before District Judge Donald Mosley.

A security supervisor for the Tropicana, told grand jurors he once worked on a robbery case with Brandon in which the robber used a similar get-up.

The supervisor said he and Brandon watched a surveillance tape of the robbery together in 1997.

"Jack said 'Wow.' In effect, he said 'Look at how well that conceals his face or covers his face up. It would be difficult to pick him out of a lineup with that tape and baseball cap,' " he said.

The grand jury transcripts show that the comment was accurate: The witness who got the best look at the robber at Rae's could not identify Brandon as the man in a photo lineup.

A busboy at the restaurant identified Brandon only after police drove the busboy by Brandon shortly after the robbery.

The busboy told grand jurors he was chatting with waitresses at the restaurant when one of them questioned him about a customer who stuck out.

"The bandages on his face, sunglasses and hat, he looked like he'd been in a car accident," the busboy said.

What he could see of the man's face appeared to be pockmarked, he said.

A few moments later, the busboy said, he saw the man hurrying out the door while stuffing something in a duffle bag -- a bag that he initially had thought was an arm sling.

"I heard a scream so -- I don't know why -- but I ran out after him," he said.

One of the United Coin employees joined him in the parking lot and told him he and his partner had just been robbed, the busboy said. The United Coin employee told him to try to get the robber's license plate number, and he was able to do so.

Some time later, grand jury transcripts show, police drove the busboy by Brandon as he sat in a vehicle and asked if he appeared to be the robber. He was similar, right down to the pockmarked face, the busboy said.

Grand jury transcripts also show that a Global Positioning Satellite tracking device placed in Brandon's car indicates he was near Rae's at the time of the robbery.

Brandon told Henderson detectives that during the robbery he was at the Starbucks on Green Valley Parkway, sat in the patio without buying coffee and read the paper. He said he went to a convenience store about 9 a.m., but realized he was going to be late for a training class and left without going into the store, according to the transcript.

Brandon, who remains free on $15,000 bail, faces two counts of robbery and one count of burglary.