Metro detective described at robbery trial as desperate man

Kim Smith

Thursday, Aug. 8, 2002 | 9:01 a.m.

On Feb. 22 Metro Police detective Jack Brandon had less than $160 in the bank, a $65,000 second mortgage and a string of credit card receipts showing $27,000 in cash advancements in a four-week period.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Lalli told jurors Wednesday the numbers show a desperate man -- a man desperate enough to rob two United Coin employees despite 14 years on the police force.

Defense attorney Steve Stein, however, said Brandon may be addicted to $5 video poker machines, but he is not a desperate man and he is not a criminal.

Besides, Stein said, Brandon's fiancee has plenty of money in the bank.

Wednesday was the first day of Brandon's trial on burglary and robbery charges.

"By all accounts, Jack Brandon was a good cop," Lalli said in opening statements. "Unfortunately, he had a terrible, terrible problem. He was a gambler, and on Feb. 22, 2002, he committed a desperate act."

Lalli told jurors that Brandon, 41, robbed the men as they were collecting gambling proceeds from the machines at Rae's Lounge and Restaurant on Wigwam Parkway in Henderson.

He said Brandon was wearing a disguise consisting of a gauze bandage on his face, a baseball cap and sunglasses, but a witness was able to write down the license plate of his getaway car. The plate came back to Brandon's police-issued vehicle, Lalli said.

"As fate would have it, at the time of the robbery, Jack Brandon was also being investigated," by Metro's internal affairs division, Lalli said.

Suspicious of a number of large banking transactions, Metro detectives had put a Global Positioning System tracking device on Brandon's car, Lalli said.

The device showed that Brandon pulled away from Rae's at the exact moment the 911 call came in about the robbery, Lalli said.

A fellow officer attending a seminar with Brandon that week will testify that Brandon arrived at the seminar late the day of the robbery and disappeared for a long period of time that day, Lalli said.

Noting that a search of Brandon's house failed to turn up the stolen money or a disguise, Lalli suggested Brandon got rid of the evidence during his absence.

A police officer, Lalli said, would know enough to get rid of evidence and how to do so.

Stein said the large bank transactions stemmed from numerous jackpots Brandon had won and reported to the IRS. Between 1999 and 2001, Brandon won nearly $658,000 while gambling, Stein said.

Brandon was in the parking lot of Rae's briefly, Stein said, but he was only looking for a woman from whom he wanted to buy a necklace for his fiancee. He was rattled when questioned by his fellow officers and simply forgot to mention it, Stein said.

The trial was to continue this afternoon before District Judge Donald Mosley.