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To listen ad free, visit sinspod dot co slash subscribe
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starting at two ninety nine a month. You'll also get
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By the end of Ron Mortenson's trial, one former Metro
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officer had been convicted of murdering Daniel Mendoza. But for
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Daniel's family, for his neighborhood, for activists, and the many
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people with eyes on Las Vegas Metro, the verdict did
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not answer everything.
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Even as Mortensen's legal fate seemed sealed, more questions were
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already rising to the surface. Christopher Brady's own conduct, his history,
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and the allegations that followed him would keep raising doubts
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and forcing people to ask, how much did the jury
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never get to hear?
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Hi, and Welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas
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true crime podcast where we focus on missing persons, unsolved cases,
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and cases involving domestic violence, which is the number one
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cause of homicide in the Las Vegas area. I'm your
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host Sean.
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And I'm your co host John.
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For the past month, we have been covering the murder
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of Daniel Mendoza, a twenty one year old who was
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shot and killed in front of his home when two
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off duty police officers, Ron Mortenson and Christopher Brady drove
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by his house and one of the officers fired a
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gun at Daniel and his friends. If you have not
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listened to parts one through four yet, we strongly recommend
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going back and starting there, as we are now deep
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into the trial, the verdict, and the aftermath. You can
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visit sinspod dot co Slash one twenty nine to start
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with part one to get caught up. When we left
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off in part four, Ron Mortenson was on trial for
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Daniel's murder, with Christopher Brady acting as a key witness
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for the prosecution. For weeks, the city was holding its breath,
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fearing the worst if Mortenson was found not guilty, expecting
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protests and riots to break out and missed rising concerns
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over over policing and racism. The injustice of Daniel's murder
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was undeniable. An unarmed twenty one year old celebrating the
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holidays with friends was purposely shot down by drunk off
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duty cops who came into his neighborhood solely to harass
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working class people and minorities. Metro, the community, and even
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the trial judge were rumored to be concerned about what
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could happen if Mortenson walked free. Many people believe the
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case came down to credibility. Christopher Brady took the stand
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and testified that Mortenson fired the shots that killed Daniel.
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Mortenson took the stand in his own defense and testified
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that Brady was the real shooter. The jury saw the
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truck Brady drove that night, heard about the ballistic evidence,
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and the competing versions of what happened, and ultimately found
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Mortenson guilty of first degree murder with the use of
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a deadly weapon.
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The day immediately after their verdict was entered, those same
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jurors had to decide whether Mortenson would someday have a
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chance at parole. During the penalty phase, prosecutor William Coot
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asked jurors to think beyond Mortenson himself, told to consider
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the damage Mortenson had done not only to Daniel's family,
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but to the community, to the police department, and to
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the fragile trust between officers and the neighborhoods they're supposed
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to serve. The Review Journal highlighted one of his lines
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in large type in their article about the sentencing, consider
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the residual damage done by Ronald Mortenson. If mister Mortenson
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has to be made an object lesson, then so be it.
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And after less than three hours of deliberation, the jury
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returned with the harshest sentence available, life in prison without
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the possibility of parole. The Review Journal described Daniel's father,
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Ramone Mendoza, his brother Ivan, and his grandmother Maria reacting
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in court. The paper reported that Ramone said the exact
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sentence Mortenson received was of little interest to him because
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no prison term could help his graving family. Whether Mortenson
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could be paroled or would remain imprisoned for the rest
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of his life, Daniel was still gone.
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The front page of the night next morning's paper revealed
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a complicated story that went beyond just one man being
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sentenced for murder. On one side of the page was Mortenson,
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convicted and being led away in handcuffs to spend the
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rest of his life in prison. On the other was
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Christopher Brady, the officer who had driven the truck left
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McKellar's circle, kept control of the murder weapon for nearly
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two days, and testified for the state The article directly
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under Brady's name was not about Daniel Mendoz's murder directly,
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it called Brady's background and credibility into question. The reporting
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echoed the concerns of many people in Daniel's neighborhood and
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among civil rights leaders. The case still had a hole
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in its center. For a lot of people, the Brady
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question had not been resolved at all, and even broader
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than that. Almost immediately after Mortenson's conviction, lawmakers and activists
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were talking about civilian oversight of Metro. One review journal
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headline put it plainly police control. Debated State Senator Joe
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Neil argued that the Morton and case showed someone objective
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should be watching over the police to make sure they
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weed out the bad cops before somebody else gets killed.
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Metro officials pushed back on the idea that a civilian
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review board would necessarily have prevented Daniel's murder, but they
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also said that they were beginning to screen recruits more carefully.
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The public was asking how two officers who admitted they
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were driving around harassing people while off duty had been
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allowed to be cops in the first place.
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That brings us back to Christopher Brady. By the end
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of the trial, the jury had heard Brady's version of
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Daniel's shooting, but it had not heard everything that would
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later surround him. Some of that was because of ordinary
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rules of evidence. A jury is not supposed to hear
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every bad thing a witness has allegedly done, especially if
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the allegation is unproven, unrelated, or likely to distract from
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the facts the jury is supposed to decide on. We've
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talked many times about this on the podcast when we've
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talked about prior bad acts. The fact that but the
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jury did not hear something does not automatically mean that
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something improper happened, But that's always hard to reconcile when
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you're talking about justice. In this case, the gap between
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the way the prosecution presented Brady to the jury as
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the man who had essentially solved the case for Metro
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and the record that emerged around him afterward became a
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major issue for Mortenson's supporters and the community at large.
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From earlier episodes, you'll likely recall that even though Brady
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was the witness for the state, his hands were not clean.
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Given what he testified to under oath. He admitted to
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drunk driving that he and Mortensen went into lower income
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neighborhoods looking to harass people. He called those people that
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he targeted dopers, bangers, and screwball people. He described driving recklessly, accelerating,
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doing one to eighties, cutting through alleys, and generally messing around.
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He told the jury that they thought they could get
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away with harassing people in those neighborhoods because they were
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nasty people. His testimony seemed to indicate that this wasn't
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a one time drunken but something he and other officers
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did often. Brady admitted to driving away from the scene
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when it was unknown if anyone was hurt, that he
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handled and cleaned the weapon used in the shooting, and
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that he waited two days to go to his supervisor
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to report what had happened. From the state's point of view,
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they needed him because he was the only person who
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could testify about what happened inside the truck and back
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up their theory of the case. But every time Brady
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explained why he and Mortensen were there, he reminded the
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jury that he was not just an innocent bystander. Later
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testimonies showed that detectives initially wanted to do what was
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called a walk through booking of Brady for a possible
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accessory charge, and that never happened. Command staff decided the
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matter should go to the district attorney because Brady had
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come in voluntarily and because by then he was being
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treated as essentially a witness for the state. That one
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decision shaped everything that followed, and the decision of whether
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Brady should have been treated as a suspect an accessory
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or something more serious never really went away.
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We're going to pause here for a quick break, but
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when we come back, we're going to dive into the
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incidence from Brady's past that the jury never got to hear.
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The first category of information the jury did not fully
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hear involved Brady's internal affairs history with Metro. After the trial,
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the Review Journal published an article under the headline Brady
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no stranger to complaints. According to that reporting, police internal
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affairs complaints against Brady showed he had been accused of
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roughing up one Latino man, inappropriately pointing a gun at another,
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and unnecessarily handcuffing several other people. The article said most
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of the eight complaints against Brady, which had been filed
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over a three month period in nineteen ninety five involved
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neglective duty, failure to fallow policy, and general rudeness to
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members of the public. Only three of the eight complaints
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were substantiated by the investigators. We will note that a
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complaint is not the same thing as a sustained finding,
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but the overall picture was still troubling, especially because Brady
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was early in his career when this all happened. One
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of the complaints involved an incident at the Startus's hotel,
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where a witness said Brady and another officer were removing
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an unruly man from the property. According to the internal
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affairs information quoted by the newspaper, the witness said one
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officer threw the man toward a patrol car, where he
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hit his head and then fell to the ground. The
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report noted that no one noticed injuries when the man
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was booked, and he could not later be found for questioning,
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so the excessive force complaint could not be upheld. In
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other complaints, cab driver's alleged Brady was overbearing and rude
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while removing and handcuffing them after minor traffic violations. In
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one of those incidents, the citations included reckless driving and
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excessive use of a horn. In another complaint, a motorist
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named Lewis Nongali said Brady unjustifiably pointed a loaded gun
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at him. Brady was cited for violating policy and not
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using sound judgment, and for failing to complete reports on
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the incident.
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The paper also reported on a complaint involving motorists named
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Jorge Escobar, who said an officer pointed a gun at
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his head for no reason. Authorities concluded Escobar was referring
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to Brady, but following an investigation, the complaint remained unsubstantiated. Again,
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we note that it's important to consider that some complaints
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were sustained while some were not, and some were later
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described by Metro officials as the kinds of complaints that
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were related to professionalism, but not necessarily the kinds of
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complaints that usually lead to termination. Under Sheriff Richard Wingnett
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said that the Department safeguards had alerted administrators to a
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large number of complaints against Brady early in his career,
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and that disciplinary action had followed, including written reprimands and
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increased training. But for anyone looking at Brady's credibility after
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Daniel's murder, the real issue was whether the jury had
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been allowed to see the broader pattern that was central
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to Mortensen's defense arguments. Defense attorney Frank Kremin had tried
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to present some of Brady's internal affairs history to the jury.
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Judge Joseph Pavlikowski did not allow it. As we mentioned earlier,
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that kind of ruling is not unusual, though judge's routinely
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limit evidence if they believe it's unrelated, prejudicial, or not
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sufficiently connected to the facts of the case, or if
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they will likely distract the jury. Brady's complaints, at least
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as Metro framed them, involved rudeness, poor judgment, and internal
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policy violations, none of which were necessarily evidence that he
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had killed Daniel Mendoza or that he was lying. However,
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to Mortensen and his defense team, the complaints mattered because
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Brady's credibility was the case. The state was asking jurors
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to believe Brady when he said that he had only
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drawn his gun when he thought Mortensen saw a threat,
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and that he had not fired his gun. The defense
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wanted to show that Brady had a history of aggressive
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or improper policing, and that this history made his version
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of the night much harder to accept.
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Then there were allegations involving Brady and Mortensen's history working
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together as partners. We touched on some of this earlier
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in the series, but we want to revisit these incidents
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so that our listeners have the complete picture of Christopher
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Brady that the jury did not necessarily get. Brady and
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Mortensen had worked together for about six months before Daniel
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was killed, and during that period there were already complaints
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about the way they treated people in the neighborhoods they patrolled.
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One incident involved an eighteen year old named Raoul Luis Mouskada.
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According to later reporting and court records we reviewed, Mosquada
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was arrested for possession of a pair of scissors and
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being under the influence of a controlled substance. He ended
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up in the hospital because of injuries he sustained during
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the arrest, and the hospital staff were directed to restrain
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him and pump his stomach because the officers suspected an overdose.
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Nothing was found in his system, and the district attorney
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later dropped the charges for lack of evidence. Another incident
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involved Sergio Acosta. According to a cost later lawsuit, in
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early December nineteen eighty six, Just a few weeks before
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David Mendoza was killed, Brady and Mortenson were involved in
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a stop where Brady allegedly kicked and choked Acosta while
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Mortenson allegedly held a gun to the head of Acosta's friend.
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Acosta was arrested on a charge of being under the
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influence of cocaine and forced to submit to a urine test,
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which came back negative. Despite that negative test, Acosta said
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he was held in a North Las Vegas jail until
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December seventeenth. He said he lost his job at Bally's
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because of the charges he faced. Those allegations were not
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the same as proof in Daniel's murder case, but they
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raised a disturbing question. If Brady and Mortensen were already
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drawing complaint about aggressive conduct, why were they still working