News briefs for May 21, 2003

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 | 9:49 a.m.

Phony charities are targeted

Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval said Tuesday he has joined with the Federal Trade Commission in a campaign aimed at halting people who falsely claim they are raising money for charity or other philanthropic causes.

"We have prosecuted several charity fraud cases recently where perpetrators have either masqueraded as legitimate charities or have represented that their fund-raising is charitable when it is not," Sandoval said.

In one case this year a Las Vegas woman held a raffle for a children's charity, collected the money, never awarded the prize and kept the money instead of turning it over to the named charity. In another case, a woman in Las Vegas was arrested last year after falsely claiming she was acting for a church in collecting donations for needy families for Christmas.

Sandoval said his office and the Trade Commission will be involved in a nationwide public education campaign that targets fraudulent fund-raising.

Man found dead near I-15 identified

A man found dead in the area of Interstate 15 and Spring Mountain Road has been identified by the Clark County coroner's office as Quandrell Ivey, 41. His address is unknown.

Ivey died as a result of multiple blunt trauma, according to the coroner's office. It's not clear if Ivey was murdered, if his death was accidental or the result of suicide.

Ivey's body was found by a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper below the highway off-ramp early Monday. A car with Colorado plates was found in the travel lane of the ramp.

Pilot killed in ultra-light ID'd

The Clark County coroner's office has identified the pilot killed when an ultra-light plane crashed on impact in a dry lake bed about 15 miles south of Las Vegas Monday as Ernest Niemerow, 47, of North Las Vegas.

The small plane pulled up sharply, then its left wing dipped and the craft crashed, witnesses said.

The man was a prison nurse at Indian Springs and had been accepted into a nursing assistant training program, a friend told Metro Police.

Nightclub manager arrested in Texas

The former manager of a nightclub inside Mandalay Bay who was wanted by Metro Police in the theft of nearly $95,000 from the business was taken into custody Monday in Texas.

Thomas Murray, 48, was found in Kimble County, Texas, Lt. Larry Spinosa said this morning. He was arrested on a theft warrant issued by Metro.

Murray was a manager of rumjungle, a popular nightspot. Police allege that on May 3 he stuffed bags with plain paper and fake money and deposited it in a drop chute for the club's safe and made off with the cash, totaling $94,875.