Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Bounty hunters on wrong side of law indicted for kidnapping, impersonating police

Two bounty hunters were indicted today on charges they posed as police officers and robbed two dancers during what the bounty hunters said was an attempt to corner a pimp who owed bond money.

A Clark County grand jury indicted Christopher Ontiveros-Mendez, 28, and Charles Rush, 29, on felony charges of kidnapping, robbery, burglary, false imprisonment and impersonation of an officer.

According to a Metro Police report:

The men had planned to lure a pimp who had skipped out on an $80,000 bond, to an apartment at 8025 W. Russell Road, by calling escort services in hopes that he would accompany one of the dancers.

The first woman showed up July 12 at the apartment, thinking she was going to dance at a bachelor party.

When Ontiveros-Mendez answered the door, he grabbed the woman's wrist and pulled her inside and handcuffed her. The men told her she was being arrested for soliciting prostitution.

Ontiveros-Mendez showed the woman a silver badge. Rush, meanwhile, sported a bulletproof vest and gold badge.

The bounty hunters took the woman's Gucci purse, cellphone, wallet, $600 cash, beauty supplies and car keys and questioned her about a black male.

The dancer told the bounty hunters several times she didn’t know the black man.

The bounty hunters released the woman after rifling through her car and keeping some of her belongings as “evidence,” according to the police report.

The dancer called 311 after being released.

When officers responded to the complex, they came across the men in the process of “arresting” another dancer in the parking lot.

That women, who was in handcuffs, told officers when she got to the complex the men pulled up behind her in a Crown Victoria and told her she was being arrested for soliciting and prostitution.

The men are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday before Clark County District Judge Jerome Tao. They remain in Clark County Detention Center on $150,000 bond.

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