Longtime Las Vegas police officer Sleeper dies at 77

Friday, Oct. 22, 2004 | 9:53 a.m.

Former Metro Police Deputy Chief John C. Sleeper, a 30-year veteran of Southern Nevada law enforcement who was given the affectionate monicker "supernarc" for creating Las Vegas' first undercover narcotics operation in 1968, died Monday. He was 77.

The brash lawman's career with the old Las Vegas Police Department was highlighted by innovative -- though controversial -- tactics for nabbing drug suspects, but derailed by his unsubstantiated accusations that the old Clark County Sheriff's Office was corrupt.

In March 1970, three years before the two police forces merged to form Metro Police, then-Lt. Sleeper made headlines when he accused sheriff's deputies of taking payoffs and tipping off drug suspects.

The accusations were made after Las Vegas Police narcotics officers raided the home of an alleged drug dealer who lived outside the city limits in unincorporated Clark County.

In the era before the merger, the protocol was that the police department did not operate in the sheriff's department jurisdiction without first informing the department and vice versa.

As a result of levying his accusations against Sheriff Ralph Lamb's officers, Sleeper was transferred by his own bosses to a low profile position in the detective bureau.

Sleeper then ran against Lamb for sheriff that fall, lost and resigned from the city force in 1971.

"John was a bulldog of an investigator, but he did not have a lot of tact," said former Sheriff Jerry Keller, who in the late 1960s and early 1970s was a deputy sheriff and later worked with Sleeper on the merged force.

"John had heard rumors, but they weren't true. If they were, officers would have been prosecuted. But whatever prompted John to make his accusations should not diminish his many years of dedication and service to the public."

In his heyday, Sleeper received 23 commendations from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. But his first job after leaving the force was running a service station at Charleston Boulevard and Fourth Street. In the mid-1970s, he was an Idaho potato farmer and later a grocery chain security supervisor.

He went back to the police force in 1978 and did everything from serving as deputy chief to serving civil papers. He retired in 1989.

After serving in the Navy during World War II, Sleeper joined the Las Vegas Police Department in 1952 and 16 years later became head of what was then a three-man narcotics unit. Soon after, he started the undercover operation, utilizing 14 officers who grew their hair long, went unshaven and dressed as hippies and bikers.

They infiltrated the local drug scene where they made numerous arrests, focusing on those who sold marijuana, cocaine, heroin and LSD.

Sleeper also sought out baby-face cops and assigned them to do undercover work at local high schools. However, his failure to tell education officials he was putting the officers in classrooms put Sleeper in hot water. He defended his actions by saying his detectives made drug cases against 40 students.

Sleeper's career got into serious jeopardy, however, when he defied then-Chief of Police Pete Witcher, who had specifically ordered Sleeper not to make drug arrests in the sheriff's jurisdiction.

In his bid for sheriff, Sleeper pledged to create a specialized narcotics division in the sheriff's department similar to what he had done for the Las Vegas Police Department. And he called for a government-financed clinic to rehabilitate drug addicts.

After losing to Lamb in the Democratic primary, Sleeper again was reassigned, first to a graveyard shift desk job and later to daytime uniformed patrol, before quitting.

Private services were held for Sleeper, who is survived by a son, John Sleeper III, and three daughters, Margie Breed, Christine McClary and Marie Calderon.05