LV POLICE OFFICER UNDER INVESTIGATION AFTER DRUGS SEIZED

Narcotics Detectives Use Search Warrant At Man's Henderson Home; Officer On
Paid Leave

A Las Vegas police officer is under criminal investigation after drugs were
seized in his home earlier this month.

Narcotics detectives entered the officer's Henderson home with a search
warrant on Jan. 9 and recovered the drugs, Las Vegas police spokesman Tirso
Dominguez said.

Dominguez said he could not release the officer's name because the officer
hasn't been charged or arrested. The officer has been placed on paid
administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

Deputy Chief Bill Young said the officer works at the department's academy
training new recruits. The investigation was launched when colleagues there
noticed the officer exhibiting suspicious behavior and reported him to
their supervisor.

None of the recruits in the officer's class will have to be retrained
because he did a competent job while at the academy, Dominguez said.

Young said a chemical analysis of the seized drugs is being done to
identify them. That should be completed in a matter of days, he said.

"Once we have that analysis, we'll make a determination if we'll submit for
prosecution," Young said.

An internal affairs investigation also is being conducted, but Young said
it probably will not go forward until the conclusion of the criminal
investigation.

The internal investigation would determine if the officer violated any
department policies for officer conduct.

"This is very rare we have an officer using drugs, but it crosses all lines
of society," Young said.

Last year, a Las Vegas police officer was acquitted by a jury of drug
trafficking charges after he nearly died in 1999 from ingesting gamma
hydroxybutyric acid, more commonly known as GHB, and Ecstasy. The officer
testified someone may have spiked his drink at a bar with the Ecstasy and
that he was unaware a drink at a woman's home he was staying at had GHB in it.

In 1997, an officer assigned to the Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or
D.A.R.E., team resigned after she tested positive for marijuana use.