Sex offender charged in assault of girl, 16

Kim Smith

Monday, Sept. 16, 2002 | 8:44 a.m.

A Clark County grand jury Thursday indicted a 38-year-old registered sex offender who is accused of impersonating a police officer during the attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl.

According to an indictment unsealed Friday, Walter Bernard Mianno faces charges of first-degree kidnapping, attempted sexual assault, battery with intent to commit a crime and impersonation of a police officer.

Mianno will be arraigned Sept. 26 by District Judge Jeffrey Sobel. First-degree kidnapping carries a potential life sentence.

Police reports say the 16-year-old girl went to a grocery store on Tropicana Avenue and Mountain Vista Street Aug. 4 to buy food and cigarettes and Mianno called to her from his van.

Mianno offered to buy the girl the cigarettes since she was underage and she got into his van with him, the police report states. Once she was inside the van, the police report alleges, Mianno told the girl she was under arrest, but said he would not arrest her if she would "do something for him."

After Mianno parked the van in a quiet industrial park on Patrick Lane, the girl told police Mianno began to grope her. When she demanded to see his badge, he pointed to a metal object with a sticker of a badge on it.

The girl said that because she feared for her life she pulled a pocket knife on Mianno. When they began to grapple for it, she cut her right hand.

The girl told police Mianno began to beat her, so she lied to him, telling him she would have sex with him. After disrobing partially, the girl managed to get out of the van and flag down an off-duty firefighter who was passing by. The firefighter called police.

Another man who saw the girl get into Mianno's van was suspicious and followed. He called police when he saw the bloodied girl jump out of the van.

According to police reports, Mianno was sentenced to eight years in prison in 1985 for sexual assault.