Detective charged in robbery facing firing from Metro

Keith Paul

Thursday, June 27, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.

A Metro Police detective who is charged in a robbery at a Henderson bar now faces firing from the department, police officials told the Sun Wednesday.

An internal investigation ruled Detective Jack Brandon, 41, violated the department's standards of conduct policy, said Sgt. Christopher Darcy, a Metro spokesman.

Brandon's superiors recommended he be fired. Brandon, who was a property crime detective, now faces a pre-termination board, which will hear the case and make a recommendation to Sheriff Jerry Keller, who has the final say. The pre-termination board hearing is scheduled for next month. Brandon has been on paid administrative leave since his arrest the day of the robbery.

Brandon was charged with robbery and burglary in the holdup of two United Coin slot machine route trucks on Feb. 22 at Rae's Restaurant and Lounge in Henderson. Police were led to Brandon after the robbery when one of the witnesses wrote down the license plate of the getaway car and it came back to the car issued to the 14-year police veteran, a police report stated.

Brandon's attorney, Stephen Klein, said Metro's actions don't impact the criminal trial, but said he was surprised that the department didn't wait until there was a determination on the charges before completing the internal investigation.

Keller said the criminal charges and the department investigation are independent of each other.

"We are proceeding based on the investigation of the conduct and policies," he said.

Police were scrutinizing Brandon's conduct six weeks prior to the robbery after being notified by his bank that there had been a large amount of cash transactions -- more than $500,000 -- in the past 12 months, according to a police report.

Details into the investigation of the cash transactions have not been revealed by Metro detectives.

Police put a satellite tracking device on Brandon's police car after the investigation into the money was started. It was that tracking device that put Brandon in the location of the robbery at the time of the robbery, according to the report.

Brandon has claimed in police reports that he was in the area but he was sitting at a coffee shop at the time.

Just before 9 a.m. Feb. 22, a man wearing a baseball hat, sunglasses and bandages over half of his face pepper-sprayed two United Coin employees emptying money from slot machines, grabbed an unknown amount of cash and fled, according to a police report.

A bar employee chased the robber and saw him get into a car. The witness was later taken to the location of Brandon's car, which he "positively identified as being the vehicle he chased the suspect to," the report states.

He also said Brandon was the same height and size of the robber and had similar hair and mustache. He also said the suspect had acne-type scars on his face, which Brandon also had.

Brandon was arrested Feb. 22 by Henderson Police and booked into the city's jail. He was released the next day on $15,000 bail. A trial on the two felony charges is scheduled for Aug. 5 in District Court.

Brandon has the right to be represented by Police Protective Association attorneys at the pre-termination board hearing, but no request has been made, said John Dean Harper, a police union attorney.

Detective David Kallas, PPA executive director, said, "If he did what they say he did, then he should be punished like anyone else."