Citizens panel faults search probe

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004 | 11:13 a.m.

A panel that independently investigates citizens' complaints against Metro Police is questioning the department's handling of a probe in which a Laughlin man claimed police did not have consent to search his apartment.

Two internal investigations into Jarrad Lopez's complaint were poorly done, the five-member screening panel of the Citizen Review Board found.

The initial investigation, handled by officers stationed at Metro's Laughlin substation "seemed very substandard, inadequate and inconclusive," Andrea Beckman, executive director of the board, said.

A second probe, done by Metro's internal affairs unit, was also inferior, the board found.

A similar case earlier this year led Metro Police officials to re-evaluate the department's policy on searches, but officials are still reworking it, Deputy Chief Mike Ault, head of internal affairs, said.

The Laughlin case stems from a vehicle stop in December 2003. Jarrad Lopez did not have a valid license and was arrested, Beckman said.

Lopez was a suspect in a narcotics case, and while he was in jail, police searched the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and their children.

According to Officers Steve Lebya and Michael Giblin, Lopez's girlfriend gave them permission to search the apartment. However, she said she didn't agree to the search.

The review board has not been able to figure out what happened because the two internal investigations into the matter were not adequate, Beckman said.

Initially the investigation was handled by Metro officials in Laughlin, which is common, given the distance from Las Vegas, Beckman said.

The investigators didn't interview Lopez or his girlfriend, they just talked to the officers, then determined the situation had been handled properly.

"There was no investigation done," Beckman said.

The review board sent the case to internal affairs for a more thorough probe. The board is normally satisfied with internal affairs' investigations, but this one was incomplete.

Investigators talked to the parties involved, but they didn't ask the right questions, Beckman said -- they did not specifically ask Lopez's girlfriend if she gave police consent to search.

"However, ironically, the investigator states that (she) acknowledged that she gave officers consent, when in fact no such statement is in the transcript of her (phone) interview," the panel noted on the findings sheet.

Instead, their investigation focused on whether she was the correct person from which to obtain consent, and they determined she was.

"The board felt it was very specific in what it requested," Beckman said, but based on the findings they received they still could not make any determinations.

The five-member screening panel decided to send the case to the board's hearing panel, which has the power to subpoena witnesses.

Another aspect of the investigation is whether or not Lopez was being harassed by police as he claimed. He was pulled over by Giblin two times: Dec. 10 and Dec. 26.

Ault declined to comment until the hearing panel completes its investigation.

A case brought before the citizen review board earlier this year resulted in some minor changes in the department's policy on searches. In that case, police failed to read burglary suspect Sheila Green her Miranda rights and looked through her purse without a warrant or permission.

Keith Justus, a Metro Police analyst, said the changes include requiring police to obtain separate search warrants to seize then search a computer and requiring probable cause as well as an immediate need to search a car without a warrant.

The changes are expected to be in place by the end of the month.