Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2004 | 11:08 a.m.
Former North Las Vegas narcotics detective William Brooks was convicted of drug dealing on Tuesday, with prosecutors saying he deserved the severest punishment for betraying his office.
By teaching drug dealers how to avoid and spot undercover detectives Brooks put police at risk, Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent said.
"I appreciate the men and women who wear the badge to protect us, and anytime one of them tarnishes that badge, it makes us all look bad," he said.
Brooks, 46, will serve at least 10 years in prison before he is eligible for parole from a life term. He was convicted of three counts of drug trafficking and one of possession of drugs with intent to sell.
Brooks is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm. He will be tried on that charge sometime next year, Laurent said.
Laurent said he felt strongly that Brooks should have been punished more harshly for his first felony conviction, in 2000, when he allegedly attacked a woman at a Home Depot while still a police officer.
Charged with kidnapping, Brooks and prosecutors agreed to a plea-bargain to the lesser charge of coercion and he received no prison time, only probation. He left the force around the same time. Convicted felons may not work as police officers.
Brooks was working as a limousine driver in April 2003 when his probation officer came to his house for a surprise inspection and found packets of cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana under the bed and a 9mm pistol in a car outside. It is illegal for convicted felons to possess firearms.
Metro narcotics officers who responded to the scene recalled that Brooks had been involved in a drug bust six months earlier, in which he had sold almost an ounce of cocaine to an undercover detective.
But Brooks' lawyers pointed out that that bust was flawed -- it didn't result in an arrest or further contact with Brooks, it wasn't recorded, and the informant who set it up got off scot-free despite being caught with a much larger quantity of narcotics than Brooks.
"How desperate is (the informant)?" public defender Melisa DeLaGarza asked in her closing argument. "Is he desperate enough to set up his co-worker that he knows is a former North Las Vegas detective? He sure is."
Brooks had been commended for his performance as a police officer and named to a joint task force with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. When he was caught last April, he allegedly bragged about teaching other drug dealers how to avoid being caught.
Brooks is to be formally sentenced on Jan. 4 before District Judge Michael Cherry.
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