Former detective sentenced in assault case

Thursday, June 20, 2002 | 9:19 a.m.

A former North Las Vegas police detective accused of assaulting a woman in a Home Depot parking lot will have to perform community service at the Shade Tree shelter for women as part of his sentence, District Judge John S. McGroarty said Wednesday.

William Brooks, 44, entered a plea agreement with prosecutors just minutes before the alleged victim was to take the stand in a district court trial in April.

"This is symbolic more than anything else," McGroarty said of adding the community service to Brooks' sentence of 30 days in jail and five years probation.

Brooks pleaded guilty to the felony charge of coercion in order to have the first- and second-degree kidnapping charges dropped, which would have carried a possible life sentence, Brooks' attorney Robert Lucherini said. The plea agreement ensures that Brooks can never wear a police badge again.

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, Chief Deputy District Attorney David Wall said during the trial.

McGroarty addressed Malloy during the sentencing Wednesday, telling her that he understood the suffering she had gone through but that he had to balance both sides in determining the sentence.

Malloy told the judge she understood. She declined to comment further.