Cop’s attorney tries to shake witness story

Kim Smith

Friday, Aug. 9, 2002 | 9:08 a.m.

Determined to prove his client's innocence, defense attorney Steve Stein paraded Jack Brandon, a former Metro detective and suspected robber, before a jury Thursday.

At the time, Stein was cross-examining 19-year-old Eric Culp during the second day of Brandon's robbery and burglary trial.

Culp was a busboy at Rae's Lounge and Restaurant in Henderson when two United Coin employees were robbed while making a pickup of slot machine proceeds.

Culp testified that after the robbery he followed a man wearing a disguise out of the lounge and watched as he got into a forest green Ford Taurus. Culp said he memorized the license plate number.

Prosecutors have said the license plate came back to a police-issued car assigned to Brandon. Moreover, they allege a Global Positioning System device attached to Brandon's car showed he was in the area of the lounge at the time of the robbery.

Prosecutors, alleging Brandon robbed the lounge out of desperation, told jurors during opening statements he was in dire financial straits due to a severe gambling problem.

Stein said that while Brandon is addicted to $5 video poker machines, the 14-year police veteran is not a robber.

Under cross-examination, Culp acknowledged that he told grand jurors that although the robber was wearing a gauze bandage on the left side of his face, he saw acne scars on the man's right side.

Culp stuck to his opinion when an obviously incredulous Stein directed his client to stand before Culp. Stein then had Brandon walk in front of the jury box, his right side exposed.

Brandon's profile could not be seen by spectators in the courtroom.

After Stein concluded his cross-examination, Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas requested Culp and Brandon stand back-to back.

Culp, at 6 feet, 3 inches, had said the robber was roughly his size. Brandon stood two to three inches shorter.

Also testifying Thursday was Todd Zukowski, one of the two United Coin employees robbed that day.

"I felt something spraying me or squirting me on the back of my head for a couple of seconds and when I turned around there was a man who tried to spray my face," Zukowski said.

Zukowski said that after the robbery he wrote down the plate number Culp had committed to memory.