Monday, Sept. 29, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.
Steven Gazlay, one of the alleged 311 Boyz who faces charges in three separate attacks in northwest Las Vegas, temporarily avoided jail time this morning after a district judge gave the teen another week to post $50,000 bail.
Gazlay, 18, was expected to post the bail this morning during his arraignment before District Judge John McGroarty.
Gazlay faces one count each of battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm and assault with use of a deadly weapon in the attack of two teens with a crowbar.
McGroarty said Gazlay had until Oct. 6 to post bail in the case, after the teen's attorney, James "Bucky" Buchanan argued that several new developments could lead to the case's dismissal. Gazlay is expected to be arraigned at that time.
After the announcement, Gazlay and his mother cried and hugged outside the courtroom. They declined to comment to reporters.
Buchanan said Sean Quinn, one of the alleged victims in the case, was expected to come to court this morning and tell the judge that Gazlay was not the one who hit him with a crowbar, Buchanan said. The teen did not show up, however.
Buchanan said the "guilty culprit" in the attack was actually Mark Herman, who was present when the fight broke out. He told McGroarty that Herman confessed the crime to Metro Police over the weekend.
"Hopefully something will happen between now and then that will cause (prosecutors) to dismiss the case," he said.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent said that Quinn, during his grand jury testimony, never identified Gazlay as his attacker.
Laurent said Quinn's friend, who was also attacked, identified Gazlay.
As far as Herman's alleged confession to police, Laurent replied, "That's news to me."
Gazlay has been labeled by prosecutors and police as the instigator of several fights involving the 311 Boyz, a gang of affluent teens in northwest Las Vegas.
Gazlay also faces 13 felony charges in the maiming of a 17-year-old boy. Gazlay and eight other teens charged in that attack pleaded not guilty.
A district judge on Friday imposed an evening curfew for Gazlay and five others who are free on bail in that case, in which Stephen Tanner Hansen was hit in the face with a rock that was thrown through the window of a car in which he was riding.
Two of the teens were placed on house arrest and a ninth teen was not given a curfew or placed on house arrest.
Laurent had asked that bail for five of the teens be raised from $40,000 to $500,000. Those defendants are believed to be the "rock throwers or instigators," he said.
Those teens were Gazlay, Christopher Farley, 18, Scott Morse, 18, Jeff Hart, 17, and Brandon Gallion, 16.
Laurent asked that the other teens be placed on house arrest.
"We don't know which rock was responsible ultimately but we believe they acted in concert," he said.
District Judge Michael Cherry denied the motion and chose curfews and house arrest for the majority of the teens. The times of the curfews depended on the teens' work schedules.
Farley was ordered to stay home from 9:30 p.m. to 9:30 a.m.; Morse from 9:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.; Anthony Gallion, 16, from 9:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.; Ernest Bradley Aguilar, 17, from 9:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.; Gazlay from 11:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.; and Costello from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.
All of the teens live with their parents. The curfew will be enforced seven days a week, Cherry said.
Hart and Brandon Gallion, who are still in custody on a case pending in Juvenile Court, were placed on house arrest. Their release will depend on the outcome of several hearings scheduled for next week in Juvenile Court.
Harriman was the only teen who was given neither house arrest nor a curfew.
Outside court Jerome Bowen, an attorney for the Hansen family, said he was "disappointed" by Gazlay's curfew, calling it too liberal.
Buchanan had argued for the 11:30 p.m. curfew, saying his client was a bail bondsman who often worked late hours.
Gazlay also has pleaded not guilty to a single count of battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm for allegedly burning another teen with a hot butter knife on July 21.
Gazlay has posted $40,000 stemming from the alleged attack on Hansen and $50,000 in connection with the butter-knife case. Buchanan said this morning Gazlay's family was completely "tapped out" when it came to posting more bail.
In the case before McGroarty, Gazlay would have to post a $5,000 premium to remain out of custody.
This morning's hearing marked a small victory for Buchanan, who has long argued that his client was wrongly accused in all three cases. He said prosecutors have unfairly come after his client in an attempt to "break him."
Police say the crowbar incident occurred in a desert area known as "The Basin" near the Las Vegas Beltway and Centennial Parkway.
According to police reports taken at the scene, Quinn said a man named Adam "Taz" Henry, 23, knocked him to the ground and "it was then that he was attacked by the rest of the 311 Boyz Gang." Once Quinn was down, prosecutors say, Gazlay began hitting him with a crowbar or a similar metal object.
Prosecutors say other 311 Boyz jumped in and proceeded to beat Quinn. Henry negotiated his case with prosecutors and was placed on an indefinite period of probation and was ordered to pay $200 in restitution.
When Quinn's friend, James Sarlo, jumped in to help Quinn, Gazlay allegedly attacked him as well. Quinn was later treated for a broken jaw, broken nose, cuts and scrapes.
In documents filed last week, Buchanan provided prosecutors with affidavits from several witnesses who claim they saw the attack on Quinn and who said Gazlay did not participate in the violence.
One witness said she laid on top of Quinn when the fight broke out in an effort to "protect his head from being plummeted by other kids who were kicking him at that time."
"At no time was Steven Gazlay anywhere in the area, nor did Steven Gazlay hit him with a crowbar or any other object," she said.
"When Sean received a blow to the head by a beer bottle, Steven Gazlay was not present with the crowd," another witness stated.
Another eyewitness pointed to Herman as the person who attacked Quinn.
"Mark Herman was bragging about the fact that he hit Sean Quinn with a metal object, his fist and a rock that he had caused the damage of which Steven Gazlay is now being charged with," the witness said.
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