Henderson retiree won’t face charges

Jace Radke and Jean Reid Norman

Friday, June 27, 2003 | 11:53 a.m.

Misdemeanor charges of resisting and obstructing a police officer have been dropped against an 85-year-old man who alleges that he was beaten by Henderson Police.

Charles Walker, a Henderson retiree, was also facing a misdemeanor charge of stopping in an intersection, but the Henderson city attorney has decided not to pursue any of the charges, Walker's attorney Arthur Flangas said.

"It's about time the truth came out," Walker said Thursday.

"My dad is no criminal. He's a pillar of the community," Walker's son, Dennis, said. "He's lived here 50 years."

Walker moved to Henderson with his wife, Eleanor, a longtime elementary schoolteacher, in 1948, and worked at Titanium Metals, Pabco Mines and the Nevada Test Site, Dennis Walker said.

The charges "should never have been brought against him," Dennis Walker said. "They were fabricated anyway."

Officials with the Henderson Municipal Court said that the misdemeanor case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the charges could be revived within a year.

Henderson spokesman Vicki Taylor said this morning the charges were dropped because of Walker's ill health.

Dennis Walker said his father never regained his balance after the July incident and fell in January.

Henderson Police officials said they had no comment on the Walker case because Walker has a federal lawsuit pending against the department.

Charles Walker has filed a federal lawsuit against the police department claiming that officers used excessive force, battered him and denied him medical treatment in connection with a July 2002 incident in downtown Henderson.

According to the lawsuit Walker suffered five broken ribs and a fractured hip after officers approached him at the intersection of Army and Market streets.

An arrest report by Officer David Tomlinson states that Walker yelled at officers when they approached him for parking his car in the intersection. According to the officer's account, Walker yelled at officers, ignored orders to stop as he advanced on them and was then pepper-sprayed.

Dennis Walker said his father pulled into a parking space when Tomlinson turned on his patrol car lights.

"When my dad got out of his car, he shuffled to the front of the car, you know, the way old men do," Dennis Walker said. "When the cop said 'Sit down,' Dad said, no he couldn't get that far, and shuffled to the rear of the car.

"He thought he was going to get a ticket an an explanation of what he did wrong. Instead he got pepper sprayed and the cop beat him."

Walker says that after he was arrested he was denied medical attention by a nurse at the Henderson Detention Center. After his release from jail, Walker was admitted to St. Rose Dominican Hospital's de Lima campus in Henderson.

Attorneys are still in the discovery phase of the federal civil suit.