Jeff German ponders if a camera would have saved a cabbie’s life

Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006 | 8:18 a.m.

Justice is around the corner for James Scholl.

The 34-year-old drifter is standing trial this week in the 2004 slaying of cabbie Pairoj Chitprasart.

Scholl is accused of dousing Chitprasart, a 51-year-old immigrant from Thailand, with gasoline and setting him on fire during a robbery.

Chitprasart suffered an agonizing death four days later, and his case focused attention on the need for cameras in cabs to help deter this kind of violence against drivers.

It was more than enough motivation for me to shine a spotlight on the camera debate.

There was no camera in Chitprasart's cab.

Had there been one in a taxi Scholl allegedly robbed eight days earlier, there's a chance Scholl might have been arrested before he had an opportunity to step into Chitprasart's vehicle.

And Chitprasart - an outspoken advocate for cameras in cabs in the Thai language newspaper he published - might be alive today.

Despite the gruesome nature of Chitprasart's death, the five-member board that oversees the Nevada Taxicab Authority has struggled in the past two years to enact a regulation requiring still digital cameras in cabs.

Some companies have opposed putting in cameras, while others have installed more sophisticated video equipment capable of recording sound. These cameras, which intrude on the riding public's privacy, are being used more to spy on the drivers than protect them.

The murder case, however, has become a priority for District Attorney David Roger, who is co-prosecuting it this week in the courtroom of District Judge Jennifer Togliatti.

Opening statements are expected Wednesday after a jury is seated.

Among those looking for justice from the jury is Greg Bambic, president of the Professional Drivers Association, a nonprofit cabbie group that last year raised $50,000 for the 14-year-old son Chitprasart left behind.

"This case illustrates how dangerous it is to be a cabdriver," Bambic says. "We want to see the violence against drivers stopped.

"All we're supposed to be doing is taking people around town safely. We shouldn't have to be fearing for our lives to do our jobs."

Earl W. Davis II says he loves a challenge, and a challenge is what he'll get running against popular Sheriff Bill Young.

Davis, who says he manages his family's oil well business, is the sheriff's first opponent to go public.

He's been circulating fliers in the business community soliciting campaign contributions.

"I'm unbought and unbossed," the 53-year-old Davis tells me. "I don't do favors for friends out there."

Unfortunately for Davis, he has little experience fighting crime - which gives him zero chance of supplanting Young, a career cop with $500,000 in contributions already in the bank.

Davis says he has worked as a security guard and an ambulance driver at various times in Las Vegas over the years.

His only job in law enforcement was in Shreveport, La., from 1973 to 1975, where he says he was a volunteer civil defense officer for the police department.

He sounds a little too ambitious.

Jeff German's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Sun. Reach him at 259-4067 or at german@lasvegassun.com.