Cops suspected of beating handcuffed Diamond Bar man
What was it Hunter S. Thompson said about North Las Vegas?
"North Las Vegas is where you go when you've f---ed up once too often on the Strip, and when you're not even welcome in the cut-rate downtown places. ... This is Nevada's answer to East St. Louis -- a slum and a graveyard, last stop before permanent exile to Ely or Winnemucca.
From the Las Vegas Review Journal:
North Las Vegas detectives arrested two of the department's own officers Thursday for misconduct during a December incident involving a casino patron.
One officer is accused of repeatedly striking the handcuffed California man in the face during the incident. Both officers are accused of lying on a police report.
Police said Mark Alan Miles and James F. Balelo, both 27, were booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of filing a false report by a public officer, a gross misdemeanor. Miles also faces a felony charge of oppression under color of office. Both officers have been with the department for almost two years.
<snip>
The incident that led to the arrests occurred just before midnight Dec. 6 at the Cannery, 2121 E. Craig Road.
Miles and Balelo were called to the casino to deal with a rowdy bar patron from Diamond Bar, Calif. The 31-year-old man, identified in the officers' arrest report as Luis Enrique Vargas, was handcuffed in a holding cell at the casino after a citizen's arrest was made by security guards.
He was accused of slamming his beer bottle on the casino bar and punching the screen of a video poker machine.
The arrest reports Miles and Balelo filed against Vargas were vastly different than evidence from the actual video surveillance, according to the report filed against the officers.
While in the holding cell at the casino, Miles, without provocation, repeatedly slapped Vargas and baited him to fight, according to the report filed against the officers. Balelo threatened to "bust" Vargas in the face if Vargas didn't stop yelling at the hotel security guards who were standing outside the holding cell.
The reports the officers filed claimed that Vargas had threatened them and attempted to bite and spit on them. The officers also made up threatening quotes and attributed them to Vargas in the reports. The surveillance showed instead that he was compliant with the two officers' requests and did not make any threats, according to the report filed against the officers.
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CONTRIBUTORS
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| Frank Girardot, Metro Editor for the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers, brings you behind the yellow tape with takes on true crime, cold cases and more. This is also your forum to discuss crime, its impact on your neighborhood and how we cover it. Have any questions or tips? You can leave a comment here or e-mail Frank. |
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Brian Day is the crime reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper group. E-mail Brian. |
maybe the city will start to go after detective spiotto for his false arrests, false imprisonments, and defamation of character of good citizens with clean records.
maybe the city will start to go after detective spiotto for his false arrests, false imprisonments, and defamation of character of good citizens with clean records.
There are bad cops like spiotto. There are also good cops. It is the bad cop like spiotto in vegas that people will remember. Just because spiotto is a bad cop does not mean that we should forget about the good cops.
I personally know this man. James Balelo is NOT a "bad" cop. He's a good man and husband. I understand N Las Vegas Cops have a bad rap. But this man is one of the few to not bit in that bill.
Well, apparently he does fit that bill.
Or maybe you think the special operations unit in
Clark county are corrupt. ( pull your head out)
Its on video taper!