This list contains incidents of misconduct that have resulted in a conviction, confession, plea bargain or some sort of administrative disciplinary action taken against a member of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Excluded are allegations and lawsuits that have not been adjudicated.
Statistics During the period 1990 to 2011, the Las Vegas Metro Police Department ranked third in the nation in officer-involved shootings per capita, behind Houston and Chicago. The department reported 310 shooting incidents in that period, 115 of them fatal. During this period three officers were killed in the line of duty. Although the local population is less than ten percent Black, about a third of those shot by the police are Black. In twenty-nine percent of the shootings, officers were shot at by suspects.
1990s
1995 In June 1995, Las Vegas resident (a suspected coin thief) Andrew Dersch was beaten by officers Brian Nicholson, Robert Phelan, and Sergeant James Campbell. After a trial, the officers were convicted, but they were later given a new trial when District Court Judge Lee Gates found that one of the jurors had misrepresented his criminal record during juror selection. In October 1997, Campbell and Nicholson pleaded no contest to the charge of conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon (a gross misdemeanor under Nevada law), while Phelan pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors, obstructing a police officer, and battery. The agreement recommended that they each to serve two years on probation and do 400 hours of community service. The three officers were fired by LVMPD, and in November 1997, Judge Gates disregarded the recommended probation and community service and instead sentenced Campbell and Nicholson to nine months each and Phelan to six months in jail.
1996 LVMPD Officer Michael Ramirez was arrested in October 1996 on charges of sexual assault, open and gross lewdness and oppression after a couple said he forced them to perform sexual acts while he watched after pulling their car over near the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. In March 1998, Ramirez pleaded guilty to two counts of oppression under the color of office. The 30-year-old former officer admitted that he had used his badge, gun and the indirect threat of arrest to force the couple to engage in sex in front of him at an isolated spot about 14 miles west of Las Vegas.
On December 28, 1996, off-duty Officer Ron Mortensen killed Daniel Mendoza in a drive-by shooting. Another Metro officer, Christopher Brady, was driving at the time. Mortensen was sentenced to life in prison without parole as the shooter, while Brady was convicted of federal charges for his role and received a nine-year sentence (in July 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court upheld Mortensen's murder conviction, finding that the murder was premeditated, willful and deliberate")
In April of 2025, Mortensen’s conviction was overturned when an appellate judge ruled the prosecutor in his original case withheld evidence that may have exonerated him as being the shooter. He pleaded guilty in lieu of being re-tried and was released for time served after nearly 30 years in prison.
1997 Officer Art Sewall was arrested on February 8, 1997, and charged with attempted sexual assault and oppression under the color of law, both felonies. Sewall was arrested following an undercover sting at a local motel. The investigation of Sewall was opened following a complaint received on February 6 alleging that Sewall was engaged in criminal conduct. After his arrest, Officer Sewall was placed on paid administrative leave. In March 1997, Sewall resigned from LVMPD and in June 1999 pleaded guilty to two felony counts of oppression under color of office, and charges of kidnapping and sexual assault were dismissed.
In May 1997, cousins Juan Berry and James Suggs were jailed on false charges by four off-duty LVMPD SWAT officers after an altercation at the now-closed Drink! nightclub. In addition, Berry and Suggs said during this time that SWAT officers continually taunted them and yelled at the on-duty officers. They said one SWAT officer called them "niggers" and that another continually made a gesture of pointing as though he had a gun and was pulling the trigger. Three on-duty responding officers later testified that the SWAT officers threatened the cousins. The on-duty police supervisor at the scene testified that he was "embarrassed as a police officer" because of the off-duty SWAT officers' "unprofessional behavior". "They were belligerent. ... They were drunk," Sergeant Steve Custer said. A detective assigned to the case conducted a second investigation which resulted in Berry and Suggs having their names entered into a national law enforcement database, and, after Berry was arrested and jailed for three days and Nevada authorities refused extradition, Berry was released. The police department confirmed that the five officers involved—Bob Rogers, Jerry "Bob" Montes, Mark Mills, Rick Klein and Bob Lewis—remained employed by the department. Lewis received a written reprimand, but it was unclear whether the other officers faced sanctions for their involvement. "Some discipline did come out of this," a department spokesperson said.
2000s
2001 The family of French citizen Philippe LeMenn, who died while in the Clark County Detention Center in 2001, settled for $500,000 in 2003.
2003 In June 2003, two LVMPD corrections officers, Alan Hirjak, and Christopher Brinkley threw lit firecrackers into inmate areas at the Clark County Detention Center, which prompted a federal lawsuit by four former CCDC inmates against the two officers, and their supervisor, Sergeant P. J. Leeke. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2006 by U.S. District Judge James Mahan, but was re-instated by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2008, and at that time, Sergeant Leeke was removed from the lawsuit. The settlement case called for LVMPD to pay $8,000 to the former inmates, and the two corrections officers will pay $7,500 each out of their own pocket. An internal affairs investigation resulted in Hirjak serving a 160-hour suspension without pay, and Brinkley a 120-hour suspension without pay. Then-Sheriff Bill Young described the incident as a "practical joke gone awry". The two officers returned to work after serving their suspensions.
2004 In 2004, Keith Tucker, 47, died after officers responded to a call from his roommate that Tucker was acting erratically. He was handcuffed and on his stomach when officers stunned him with a Taser. LVMPD Sgt. John Sheahan said Tucker died from "positional asphyxia", meaning that Tucker couldn't breathe while being restrained. A medical examiner ruled Tucker died from cardiac arrest during "restraint procedures", which included the use of the stun gun. A coroner's inquest jury ruled the death "excusable". Sheahan said the department won the first trial in Clark County District Court. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the plaintiff, and the case was sent back to District Court. On December 12, 2012, the LVMPD Fiscal Affairs Committee recommended a settlement offer of $295,000.
2006 In 2006, Officer Eric Barros was sentenced to three years probation for theft and falsifying evidence during a drug raid. He left the department.
2007 On March 27, 2007, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was ordered to pay $1.48 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging Las Vegas police gave special treatment to an officer's wife who hit and killed a bicyclist in 1994. The settlement ends 13 years of legal fighting that began shortly after Erin DeLew was killed while riding her bike home from a Summerlin supermarket. The driver, Janet Wagner, had been drinking alcohol that evening but was never charged, according to court documents. The lawsuit contended that her husband, Officer David Wagner, and his fellow officers knew she had been drinking but covered it up and delayed calling the Nevada Highway Patrol, which eventually took over the investigation.
In July 2007, Raymond Yeghiazarian was killed in a motor vehicle crash in which LVMPD Officer Jared Wicks was traveling through an intersection between 60 and 75 miles per hour (the posted limit is 45 MPH) while pursuing a white van and not using emergency lights or siren (this according to experts). A Clark County jury in August 2011 awarded a payment of 2.2 million dollars to the relatives of Yeghiazarian, but this amount was reduced to 250,000 dollars by a judge (being that the maximum civil payment allowed under state law). The award was appealed by LVMPD to the Nevada Supreme Court (as of February 2012). The civil attorney for Yeghiazarian has filed a new civil case in US federal court for 7 million in damages (there are no monetary limitations on awards in federal court), and that LVMPD detectives have been biased in their investigation of this traffic crash (note – the jury in the above case did find that Yeghiazarian was at least 25 percent responsible as to the cause of the crash).
2008 LVMPD Officer William Miller was arrested by officers of the Henderson Police Department on charges of domestic violence and coercion in 2008. He was convicted of battery and left LVMPD. Miller was previously involved in a shooting (non-fatal) of a suspected carjacker in July 2004.
2009 Press reports indicate that on May 7, 2009, Officer James Manor was driving his official vehicle at 109 miles per hour when a pick up truck attempted to make a left turn. In the collision with a pickup truck that followed, Officer Manor was killed. Sheriff Doug Gillespie said that Officer Manor and a car driven by another officer had their lights and sirens on as they sped through the intersection. This was later shown not to be the case. The driver of the pickup Calvin Darling was arrested at the scene and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. Investigation later showed the police car had struck the pickup and that Officer Manor was not wearing his seat belt. After this incident, Calvin Darling's blood alcohol limit was tested at 0.035 and that the Clark County District Attorney's office dropped DUI and failure to yield charges against Mr. Darling when it determined that James Manor was found to be at fault in the crash that ultimately took his own life. On July 26, 2010, the LVMPD Fiscal Affairs Committee approved a $120,000 settlement with Calvin Darling over the four days he spent in jail regarding this incident.
In November 2009, LVMPD Officer Kevin Koval used a lateral-vascular neck restraint (commonly referred to as a choke-hold) to subdue Dustin Boone (who was behaving erratically and had not been taking medication) after entering his home through an unlocked sliding door. The finding of the coroner's inquest found that the death was 'excusable' (which means accidental), and that Sheriff Gillespie had been advised on the manner of entry to the home, and what kind of risk Boone actually posed to the public. On May 23, 2011, the LVMPD fiscal affairs committee approved a $1,000,000 settlement with James, Dorothy, and Michelle Boone (all relatives of Dustin Boone).