Police union squares off against review board in officer’s case

Jen Lawson

Thursday, Dec. 16, 2004 | 9:24 a.m.

A judge is expected to decide next month whether or not a police oversight board should be permitted to subpoena Metro Police officers accused by citizens of wrongdoing.

Andrea Beckman, executive director of the Citizen Review Board, said the law clearly allows the board to issue subpoenas.

But Officer Steve Leyba, who is named in a complaint filed by a citizen, and the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, the union representing some of the department's rank-and-file officers, say the review board is overstepping its authority.

A hearing requested by the review board was held Wednesday before District Judge Jessie Walsh.

The matter stems from a complaint filed with the review board in December 2003 by Laughlin resident Jarrad Lopez.

He alleged that Leyba, who works out of Metro's Laughlin substation, and another officer searched his apartment without his permission while conducting a drug investigation.

The review board subpoenaed Leyba to testify at a hearing Nov. 30 in the Lopez case, but he didn't show up.

Leyba, who is not a member of the police union, blamed a communication breakdown and said he told his superior officers that he did not plan to appear at the hearing and thought they would call the review board and tell them.

He explained that he had been exonerated by two Metro internal investigations and believed this was a closed matter. He said he felt his rights would have been violated if he had appeared.

"I do not blow off subpoenas," Leyba said. "I just feel this was a lack of communication."

However, Beckman said Leyba would need to follow the proper legal channels if he did not want to testify and that a phone call would not have been satisfactory.

He could have appeared at the hearing and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, or he could have filed a motion saying the subpoena was issued unlawfully.

Further, Beckman challenged Leyba's statement that he was exonerated by Metro.

She said the two internal investigations were shoddy and failed to address the issue at hand -- whether or not the officers had consent to search.

The board scheduled a hearing in the matter, hoping to get some answers to their questions that the internal affairs investigation did not address, and subpoenaed Leyba.

In 1999 the Legislature passed laws that led to the creation of the review board, which was done in response to intense public demand for independent investigation of alleged police misconduct.

The laws give the review board power to subpoena officers to testify under oath in a closed, grand jury-like hearing.

The union sponsored a bill in 2003 that would have prohibited the review board from subpoenaing officers, but it died in committee.

John Dean Harper, attorney for the union, said police are encouraged, not required, to testify.

"The CRB doesn't have the power to subpoena officers and compel their testimony," he said. "The PPA wants to make it clear that it has never been opposed to the CRB and its power. We are opposed to the CRB compelling officers to testify."

Walsh tentatively scheduled a hearing for Jan. 26 to render her decision.