Metro beats one seizure complaint; another rises

By Jeff German

Monday, March 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Metro Police avoided being held in contempt of court a couple of weeks ago even though it took them more than 17 months to comply with a judge’s order to return all cash and property illegally seized from three Las Vegas area gamblers.

It turned out to be a rough experience for police, yet they may be back on the road to contempt in what defense attorneys are calling a “strikingly similar” new case of alleged search warrant abuse.

Detectives had confiscated the items in the previous case during raids in April 2007 — and then allowed Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies to take the loot to Phoenix without first obtaining the authorization of any court. District Judge Michelle Leavitt ruled the raids and the removal of the property to another state illegal, and the following September ordered the cash and goods returned.

Metro hired expensive private attorneys to keep detectives out of Leavitt’s doghouse all those months. At first the attorneys challenged Leavitt’s order, but when that failed, they tried to persuade Maricopa County authorities to return the property to Metro so it could give it back to the gamblers. Charges against all three men, Brandt England, Michael V. Buono Sr. and his son, Michael A. Buono, were ultimately dismissed in Arizona.

But did police learn from the mistakes they made in that case?

Las Vegas attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, who battled for the return of Brandt’s property, don’t think so. They’ve filed papers in District Court seeking the return of valuable items they contend police unlawfully seized last month from another client, Jerryl Lloyd Carrington. This time, the attorneys said, Carrington’s property mysteriously wound up in the hands of federal authorities.

Carrington first encountered police Feb. 4, when officers showed up at his Las Vegas home to inform him there had been a threat to his safety.

While there, Chesnoff and Schonfeld wrote, officers asked their client whether they could search his home. When Carrington refused, police kept him detained there for 10 hours while they obtained a criminal search warrant from a judge. Eventually, police seized some cash, $138,000 in Bellagio gambling chips, several weapons and a 2007 BMW.

Chesnoff inquired about the property several days after the search and was told by police that it had been turned over to unidentified federal authorities for forfeiture proceedings. The property was unlawfully given to federal authorities without a judge’s permission, Chesnoff and Schonfeld said.

On top of that, they wrote, the Bellagio gambling chips were converted to cash, rather than placed in a police evidence vault, leaving the attorneys to conclude the search of Carrington’s home was a ruse to help authorities get their hands on Carrington’s property. The attorneys said they have been unable to find out what criminal charges, if any, their client is facing.

And once more police are paying big bucks to the law firm of Marquis & Aurbach to defend their actions. The firm is trying to get the case moved to federal court.

•••

The Southern Nevada Women’s Correctional Facility almost had to be evacuated last week after officials discovered a large structural crack over the kitchen area.

The crack was discovered after workers pulled down the ceiling as part of a remodeling project, prompting officials to close the kitchen area.

For a couple of days, officials could not serve any hot food to the 700 inmates. Nevada Corrections Department Director Howard Skolnik said sandwiches were brought in from the High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs.

Skolnik said the crack was fixed and the kitchen was cleared to reopen by Friday, bringing the women’s prison back to normal.

“We had the entire facility inspected and had developed an evacuation plan,” Skolnik said. “But we didn’t have to use it.”