Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Judge revokes bail for Stanley Rimer after learning of jewel-laden briefcase

Rimers

Photos from Metro Police

Colleen Rimer and Stanley Rimer

Updated Thursday, March 3, 2011 | 12:55 p.m.

Why did Stanley Rimer carry a briefcase that contained thousands of dollars of jewelry and precious stones to court Tuesday when a Clark County jury convicted him and his wife, Colleen, of involuntary manslaughter in the death of their 4-year-old son, Jason?

That was the big question that District Judge Douglas Herndon was trying to find out Thursday in a hearing on the matter.

Herndon brought the prosecutors, the attorneys and the Rimers into his courtroom to explain.

The judge said a corrections officer contacted him Tuesday about the briefcase after the Rimers were taken into custody at the Clark County Detention Center.

The judge told them he had suspicions that Stanley Rimer, who was out of custody on house arrest, might have brought the briefcase with him because he was considering fleeing if he had been released out of custody pending a May 31 sentencing.

After hearing from the Rimers' attorneys, Herndon indicated he wasn't satisfied with any of the explanations.

The judge revoked Stanley Rimer's $500,000 bail, but kept Colleen Rimer's bail the same, at $250,000.

"I don't buy the idea that this was some safe-keeping of a family item," Herndon said. He noted that during the trial, there was testimony that Rimer distrusted government agencies.

The judge also said he didn't believe Rimer brought the jewelry to court in order to use it to bail himself out of jail. The jewelry could have been converted to cash long before the trial ended, the judge said.

"It's not like you're going to get arrested and go to jail and then call a bail bondsman and say ‘come pick up this jewelry for my bail.’ That's kind of ridiculous," Herndon said.

Herndon said he was making a "very strong inference," that Rimer "was banking on not being remanded to custody and having this be available for him to sell as necessary to have cash."

Meanwhile, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said he wanted to see the financial status form the Rimers filled out in Las Vegas Justice Court. That form was the basis for the court to consider them indigent and unable to afford their own attorneys.

Herndon also told the Rimers' attorneys that he didn't hold them at fault — it was the court's duty, not the appointed counsel's duty, to find out if the Rimers could have actually afforded their own legal counsel.

The Rimers were both convicted Tuesday of involuntary manslaughter in the death of their special needs son, Jason, who died after being left in the family's hot vehicle on June 8, 2008.

They were also each convicted of multiple counts of neglect and child abuse of Jason and their other special needs son, Aaron. Stanley Rimer was also convicted of the child abuse and neglect of three of their other sons.

DiGiacomo has estimated that could mean prison terms from 14 to 36 years for Colleen Rimer and from 21 1/2 to 54 years for Stanley Rimer.

During today's hearing, Deputy District Attorney David Stanton provided the judge with photographs of the briefcase and asked the court to revoke the bail of both of the Rimers.

Stanley Rimer's attorney, Tim O'Brien, said the only change in circumstances after the verdict was that Rimer allowed himself to be remanded into custody with the briefcase.

O'Brien said Rimer's actions were transparent in that he knew he would be taken to jail and knew his property would be impounded.

"It doesn't evidence any kind of a conspiracy," O'Brien said. "I know there's been some talk in the press that this is clearly evidence of a plan on his part to escape our jurisdiction. That's simply a flight of fancy, judge."

Herndon said he didn't want to get into any privileged conversation between O'Brien and Rimer. But the judge indicated he was suspicious of "a guy who comes to court with a briefcase with thousands of emeralds and all kinds of other things in there," including deeds to his house and his vehicles.

O'Brien said Rimer brought the items to court with the intention that they be released to a family member.

"Why doesn't he do that before he ever comes to court?" Herndon asked. "He's been out of custody for a year. If he's looking for safekeeping of it, especially with his distrust of government agencies, it doesn't seem logical that he would bring it to court and turn it over to the government."

O'Brien argued that Rimer's motives were "very transparent." O'Brien also noted that Rimer was given an emergency release on his own recognizance for two days to travel unsupervised to San Francisco, then surrendered himself to authorities.

"He's done everything the court has asked. He has made every court appearance," O'Brien said. He asked that Rimer's bail be reset to $500,000 and that the briefcase be released to Rimer's brother.

Colleen Rimer's attorney, Michael Sanft, said he didn't understand why Colleen Rimer's bail would need to be revoked. Herndon said he didn't change her bail status when he found out about the briefcase.

Stanton said a Metro Police detective who investigated the matter Wednesday interviewed the corrections officers who interacted with Rimer when he was taken into custody.

"Mr. Rimer expressed repeatedly a desire that the briefcase not be opened," Stanton said.

However, the jail staff told Rimer the briefcase couldn’t be impounded without knowing what it contained, Stanton said.

Rimer refused to give them the combination to open the lock on the briefcase, Stanton said.

"It was only when the deputy asked for a screwdriver to forcibly open it that the defendant permitted them to open it," Stanton said.

Stanton also said the district attorney's office was concerned that both of the Rimers came to court claiming for two years that they were indigent.

"The state's concern is that assets that they had previously not disclosed to the court about their financial conditions could be used to procure their bail and obviously, under the circumstances, represent a significant risk of flight," Stanton said.

O'Brien said that in terms of financial disclosure, Rimer had brought in a private attorney and petitioned the court to allow him to have a private attorney to represent him instead of O'Brien.

"The state objected to that. The court denied it," O'Brien said.

Court records show that four days before the Rimers' trial started on Feb. 14, the court heard a motion by attorney Robert Draskovich that he had been retained as a private counsel for Rimer on Feb. 2.

Court records showed that Draskovich asked for the trial to be reset to a future date because Draskovich was in a federal trial. Herndon denied resetting the trial at that time and Draskovich then said he couldn’t represent Rimer.

"Later on, coming into court toting around thousands of dollars worth of precious or semi-precious stones, in my mind, means he could have hired an attorney a long time before trial," Herndon said.

DiGiacomo said he didn't know whether the state could withhold the briefcase and its valuables.

Herndon told O'Brien and Sanft to discuss how they wanted the briefcase to be released and to whom. Meanwhile, the briefcase will be kept in a vault in the district court offices, Herndon said.

In other action in the case, Herndon said he would allow Colleen Rimer to have contact with her sons Quaylyn Rimer and Brandon Rimer, who have each asked if they could visit their mother.

Herndon also was told that Brandon Rimer is trying to get back his high school diploma and wanted help from the court.

DiGiacomo said Brandon Rimer "informed us that his father, Stanley Rimer, had been holding his high school diploma in an effort to get him to testify fav—"

But O'Brien cut him off, objecting, saying DiGiacomo was trying to defame Stanley Rimer.

"We're not in trial," Herndon said. "It's not hearsay."

DiGiacomo went on, saying Brandon Rimer told the district attorney's office that his father had his high school diploma.

"And Brandon said it was an effort to get him to testify favorably on behalf of his father and asked if we now knew where his high school diploma was, and asked us if we knew where it was, could we have it returned," DiGiacomo said.

DiGiacomo asked that the judge order Stanley Rimer to either turn over the diploma to the court or to tell O'Brien where it was.

The judge also said that if the diploma couldn't be retrieved, he could order the high school to send Brandon a copy of his diploma.

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