Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Officers cleared in Moncrief sobriety test

Three Metro Police officers who escorted Las Vegas City Councilwoman Janet Moncrief from a restaurant on July 10 to administer a field sobriety test after an off-duty Metro employee alleged Moncrief had been drinking and driving have been cleared of acting improperly, authorities said.

That preliminary finding of a two-week investigation by Metro's Internal Affairs Bureau leaves the probe focused on whether the recently hired Metro dispatch call-taker who tailed Moncrief to the restaurant violated department policy or was politically motivated.

The investigation into the July 10 incident at Fellini's Italian Dining, 5555 W. Charleston Blvd., was sparked by Moncrief asking Sheriff Bill Young the next day if what happened was in line with department procedure. Moncrief did not make a formal complaint, but internal affairs began its investigation into the matter on July 14 at Young's request.

"It does not appear that the officers did anything wrong," Metro Capt. Marc Joseph, head of internal affairs said Thursday, noting the full investigation is not expected to be completed for another week, possibly two. "The focus is whether she (Moncrief) was singled out" when she left the Ice House, a new local downtown bar, and drove to Fellini's the night of the incident.

Young agrees with Joseph's findings through the first two weeks of the probe.

"Based on my conversation with Councilwoman Moncrief, she indicated to me that the officers did nothing wrong," Young said. "What concerned her was that of all of the people in the bar why was she followed out the door. I too have to ask why would someone get up from a bar and follow another person. It's troubling.

"We have specific on- and off-duty conduct policies. The policy (for nonofficer employees) is to call dispatch or call a police officer -- and that is what she did. I have to defend my employee because I believe everyone is innocent until proven otherwise."

Police have declined to release the name of the officers involved and the off-duty nonofficer, whom Young described as a "brand new" employee.

Moncrief said she is "a little embarrassed about the leak to the media" about the investigation. She was found to have been sober in the opinion of the officers who made her walk a straight line.

"I passed the sobriety test wearing my three-inch blue heels," Moncrief said Thursday. "I am not a drunk and I would not drive intoxicated and risk someone's life."

If Moncrief's accuser has ties to political enemies of Moncrief, who in June unseated incumbent two-term Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald, an ex-Metro Police officer, that could help determine whether she was trying to embarrass or discredit the elected official, as opposed to being just a a concerned citizen following a possible drunk driver.

Asked whether the investigation so far has turned up whether the woman has any ties to McDonald, Young said he does not believe the woman has been with the department long enough to likely have ties to an officer who left the force several years ago.

"My instincts are that this has nothing to do with former Officer Michael McDonald," Young said. "If this were something political, it would have been done during the campaign."

Young indicated it is more likely a case of an employee getting a little carried away with her perceived duty to the department.

As for the officers' actions, Young said the liability risk of not following up on a drunken driving complaint to "a logical conclusion" would have been a far greater problem for the department.

"The officers sent out on this call had no idea what they were going to find," Young said. "There have been instances when police have not taken in a borderline DUI suspect and that person got back behind the wheel and killed someone. The officers had to let the investigation run its course."

For most misdemeanors, officers have to witness a crime to make an arrest. However, Young said, while that is true for misdemeanor DUIs, officers do not need to witness felony DUIs to make arrests.

But Moncrief's case was not a felony DUI. Felony DUI usually involves a hit and run or traffic death.

Young said a citizen's arrest can be made in instances when the evidence gathered by police supports an accusation of a misdemeanor offense by a witness.

Moncrief said that she has been told by police that dispatchers broadcast over the police radio that her accuser said the suspected driver was "Janet Moncrief, the councilwoman."

Gary Peck of the American Civil Liberties Union Nevada said his agency has given legal advice to public officials who have made inquiries about their rights and civil liberties after claiming they were the target of authorities using selective enforcement to embarrass or discredit them.

"The advice varies on the situation, but basically it is that we live in a country where people have the right to be left alone by law enforcement and government agencies unless there is a good reason for the police to be involved," Peck said.

"The allegation by Councilwoman Moncrief is a serious one, but at this time it is only an allegation. If it is true a police employee targeted her merely because she is a public official then that would be improper and the officers or employee should be held accountable."

During the campaign it was learned that in 1994 Moncrief was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, but that charge later was reduced to careless driving.

Moncrief said Thursday there was no reason for this most recent investigation to be publicized because it will serve only as fuel for her critics even though the officers at the scene cleared her of any wrongdoing.

"I may have a glass of wine with dinner. There is nothing wrong with that," Moncrief said. "With 75 people in the Ice House that night, why was I picked out? I had one drink with an attorney I was meeting with over council business. He was drinking a vanilla vodka, so I had one too. He offered to buy me a second drink and I refused."

Moncrief said her accuser "really went out of her way" to follow her, as Moncrief recalled making a U-turn in the parking lot before heading down Main Street. She also said police told her there were no reports from dispatchers that she had been swerving or otherwise driving with any signs of impairment.

"It took me about 15 minutes to get to Fellini's, where I eat about twice a week because it is near where I live," Moncrief said. "I sat down with my roommate and other friends when three officers came in and approached me. When they asked me to step outside, I laughed because I thought my roommate was pulling a joke. But he wasn't laughing and neither were the officers."

Moncrief went outside as members of her party followed, she said, including the owner and her friend Bob Harry, who she said was concerned.

"I just didn't want anything to happen to her," Harry said Thursday amid bustling dining business at his restaurant.

The officers during their investigation asked Moncrief if she had driven a car they pointed to in the parking lot, and she said yes. They asked if she wanted to take her high heels off for the sobriety test, but she said she refused. After that, the officers, Moncrief said, introduced her to her accuser, who had claimed that Moncrief had consumed three drinks at the Ice House.

"She was about 35 years old and was wearing cutoffs, thong-type shoes and a T-shirt," Moncrief said. "It surprised me that she had even been in the Ice House wearing that because it is a little more upscale place.

"She told police I was speeding to get to the restaurant. I told her if I was driving too fast, so was she if she had followed me."

After the incident Moncrief went back into the restaurant to order and eat her dinner, but she said she "felt a little confused over what had happened."

Young said that when he received Moncrief's inquiry, he thought it was best to have it investigated, but did not intend to have it publicized.

"I did not want to embarrass anyone," said Young, noting he has met Moncrief only once, and that was to brief her on the police department after she was elected to office in June.

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