Victim’s jail record cited in cop’s trial

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2002 | 9:48 a.m.

During the year before his death at the hands of a Metro Police officer, John Perrin spent 163 days in jail, and charges of methamphetamine manufacturing and trafficking were pending against him at the time of his death.

Information about Perrin's prior record was allowed into the $25 million civil rights trial Tuesday after attorneys for Metro pointed out a discrepancy in last week's testimony by the plaintiff and mother of the victim, Connie Perrin.

Connie Perrin testified that she saw her son once or twice a week in 1998 and spent holidays with him, but Metro attorney Walter Cannon pointed out that John Perrin was in the Clark County jail for much of 1998 and part of 1999 before he was shot and killed by Metro Officer Bruce Gentner on April 12, 1999.

Connie Perrin was again called to the witness stand Tuesday, where she admitted that she didn't spend as much time with her son while he was in prison, and that she knew of his drug habit.

"He was embarrassed and didn't want his mother to come visit him," Perrin said. "He never took drugs in front of me. The love between a mother and a son cannot be usurped by a problem."

John Perrin's longest stint in custody in 1998 lasted from May 16, when he was arrested on a drug charge, through Sept. 26.

That arrest violated a judge's order for Perrin to stay out of trouble in exchange for a suspended six-month sentence on a domestic battery charge.

The domestic battery charge was deemed irrelevant to the current case by U.S. District Court Judge Roger Hunt.

Read into the record, however, were two unresolved charges of manufacturing and trafficking in the drug, stemming from a November 1998 arrest as well as a guilty plea by Perrin to a charge of attempted possession of methamphetamine linked to the May 1998 arrest.

Connie Perrin's attorney, Brent Bryson, argued that the dead man's criminal record shouldn't be allowed into the trial, which was scheduled to reach closing arguments today.

"It undermines our case and makes it seem like we were hiding something from the jury," Bryson said.

Hunt, however, said that Bryson opened the door to allowing the testimony last week when he questioned Connie Perrin about her relationship with her son. Hunt did tell the jury to consider the new evidence only in relation to the accuracy of Connie Perrin's statements.

Instead of allowing Cannon to put witnesses on the stand to testify about Perrin's record, Perrin's attorneys agreed that Hunt would read the charges into the record.

Bryson and his co-counsel, John Burris, also agreed that a jar containing iodine crystals and a small plastic baggy containing methamphetamine found at the scene of the shooting were the property of John Perrin.

Perrin was shot near Rainbow Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.

Also allowed in were two police records, one from Jan. 24, 1998, in which Perrin stated he was homeless, and another from Feb. 3, 1999, in which Perrin stated he was unemployed.

Also on Tuesday, Metro Police called a police procedures expert to the stand, who testified that he believed Gentner acted properly when he stopped Perrin for jaywalking and an alleged drug transaction.

Donald Bassett, a former FBI agent and firearms training instructor, said that Gentner followed proper police procedures during the series of events that led to the shooting and killing Perrin.

"The officer's actions are consistent with what a well-trained officer would do if confronted with a similar situation," Bassett said. "If Mr. Perrin had shown his hands he'd be alive today. Unfortunately he chose not to do that."

Gentner said Perrin did not obey commands to move to the front of the officer's patrol car, or to show his hands. Gentner said Perrin turned toward him and began pulling something from his waistband, which Gentner perceived to be a gun.

Perrin didn't have a gun, but was carrying the small jar of iodine crystals, which are used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

A total of 14 shots were fired, with six bullets striking Perrin, who had methamphetamine in his system at the time of his death.

Bassett said that Gentner acted reasonably in not calling for backup in what he thought was a routine pedestrian stop, and that his warnings to Perrin met the standard used by police.

The plaintiff's police procedures expert, Donald VanBlaricom, a former Bellevue, Wash., police chief, said that he thought Gentner should have called for backup and that he had time to shout, "Show me your hands, or I'll shoot." VanBlaricom also had testified that noncompliance with an officer's orders is not a valid reason for an officer to shoot, and VanBlaricom said that he did not understand how anyone could mistake a jar for a gun.