New unit to focus on crimes committed with weapons

Kim Smith

Friday, March 8, 2002 | 9:44 a.m.

Two years ago law enforcement officers and prosecutors on the federal and state level got tired of seeing armed felons committing new crimes again and again so they joined efforts to get them off the streets.

Federal and state prosecutors, working together, began deciding which jurisdiction could put the bad guys behind bars the longest and began dividing up their cases accordingly.

The idea was to help an overburdened state court system and put defendants away for longer periods of time.

Clark County may not be as overburdened beginning April 1.

On Thursday it was announced that, thanks to a $480,000 federal grant, the Clark County District Attorney's Office has created a five-member gun crimes unit solely dedicated to prosecuting crimes in which a weapon was used.

In addition, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Las Vegas has acquired three new prosecutors to prosecute such cases on the federal level. They will also prosecute those cases in which ex-felons are caught carrying weapons -- whether they have allegedly committed a new crime or not.

In announcing the news, Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell said, "Clark County is safer today than it was six months ago and in two years it will be safer than it is today."

Chief Deputy District Attorney Victoria Villegas, who will head up the newly formed Gun Crimes Unit, said the new unit will result in gun-related crimes getting the attention they deserve.

Until now, most crimes committed with weapons weren't treated any differently than any other crime, Villegas said. They were divided up amongst all of the prosecutors in the DA's office, who then had to decide which cases should be given a priority.

When confronted with a choice between a robbery with use of a deadly weapon case and a possession of a firearm case, the prosecutor would choose the robbery case to take to trial and likely offer a plea agreement in the possession case, Villegas said.

Unfortunately, the plea agreements were often offered without the prosecutor having had the time to do a criminal background check on the defendant, Villegas said. As a result, habitual criminals often got deals they shouldn't have.

Now, federal and state prosecutors and law enforcement officers will have the time to do the background checks, Villegas said. Prosecutors, Metro officers and agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will sit down together on a weekly basis, discuss criminal histories, charges and likely sentences and treat each defendant accordingly.

In those cases in which the defendants' backgrounds are particularly egregious, the federal government will step in.

Tom O'Connell, chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office narcotics and violent crime division, noted that federal laws require defendants to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.

More than 260 weapons cases have been screened by the U.S. Attorney's Office since 1999 and in those cases where defendants were prosecuted, most received at least seven years.

In fact, O'Connell recently received the Director's Award from U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft for his role in putting together the program.

Bell and U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said the grant is part of President George W. Bush's Project Safe Neighborhood program and an extension of Project Exile, a violent crime reduction program that began a few years ago.

O'Connell said Clark County received the largest grant possible because local officials have been working together with the U.S. Attorney's Office on the project for the past two years.

As the four-year grant begins to run out, Clark County Commissioner Chairman Dario Herrera said the county will begin to pick up the tab with the help of fees and fines generated by the DA's bad check unit.

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