Probe continues into fatal fight at last year’s event

Erica Johnson

Wednesday, April 23, 2003 | 10:49 a.m.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger said last year's Laughlin River Run melee is still being investigated by prosecutors and Metro Police detectives.

There are 11 potential defendants in the case, he said. Roger said he was unable to estimate how many other people were involved in criminal activity at the event.

Roger said most of the time has been spent digitizing casino surveillance tapes from Harrah's Laughlin, where rival motorcycle gangs clashed. The process will help isolate each person in each frame. Isolating each potential defendant will make the tape easier to review by a jury or judge, he said.

The digitizing will allow the viewer to determine each person's actions from start to finish, Roger said. The process was vital, as the tape initially showed a melee with hundreds of people running around, he said.

"For instance, we're trying to track defendant A from the time he or she walks in and isolate that defendant's actions, then move on to defendant B," Roger said.

But while the videotape is a helpful tool, the digitizing process has prolonged the case considerably, Roger said. Digitizing each frame of the tape takes detectives hours, he said.

"The videotape made it easier, but there's also a great deal of videotape to go through," he said. "It has taken a great deal of time to digitize the videotape and to isolate each suspect's actions at the scene."

The surveillance tape is one of the few leads prosecutors and detectives have in this case, Roger said.

"It's not often that we have to depend almost entirely on video footage of a crime," he said. "A lot of individuals fled the scene or were unwilling to speak to us. We were able to identify some of the players, but we're not sure if there will be a lot of witnesses. It was a melee."

The statute of limitations on a case such as this is two years, he said.

"The passage of time rarely helps prosecutors in presenting a successful case to a jury," he said. "But in this case, because of the video footage, I doubt we'll have a great deal of difficulty in prosecuting the case."

At the same time, civil lawsuits are in the court system, also stymied by the lack of evidence.

Las Vegas attorney Robert Murdock filed a complaint in January against Harrah's on behalf of the family members of Jeramie Bell, a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang who was killed in the shootout at last year's River Run.

Bell, of Modesto, Calif., left behind a wife, Marrya Bell, and two children.

The lawsuit, which was filed in both district and federal court, alleges that the Laughlin hotel was negligent in providing adequate security for the event and seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

Murdock said what he called the slow pace of Metro's investigation into the incident is also affecting civil proceedings. He cannot view the evidence necessary to move forward with the case until Metro completes its investigation, he said.

"The case is still in its infancy," he said. "(Police) have all the evidence and no one can get their hands on that evidence until they give it to us. The amount of evidence is so great that it slows things down. But in the end the truth will come out."

Murdock said Bell in no way participated in the violence that occurred in the casino.

"He loved to participate in the Hells Angels' toy drives," Murdock said. "He was just an innocent bystander who got killed."