July 13, 2026

The Murder of Daniel Mendoza - Part 5

The Murder of Daniel Mendoza - Part 5
The Murder of Daniel Mendoza - Part 5
Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast
The Murder of Daniel Mendoza - Part 5
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With the conviction of Ron Mortensen, our attention turns to Christoper Brady. Was this a case of the prosecutors and police having preconceived notions of Mortensen's guilt and ignoring Brady? What exactly was the jury not allowed to hear?

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To listen ad free, visit sinspod dot co slash subscribe

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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

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together and why did no one intervene before mckeller circle.

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There was also the alleged culture behind some of these encounters.

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In earlier episodes, we talked about the term fishing, which

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surfaced in connection with the civil litigation around the case.

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According to later test, the term referred to off duty

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police officers getting drunk driving into minority neighborhoods and finding

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people they viewed as gang members or criminals, and provoking

251
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confrontations for fun. Former Sergeant Ron Fox described it as

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barroom talk that he said he had often heard rumors about.

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The federal lawsuit alleged that senior officials within Metro knew

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this kind of behavior was happening, and they looked the

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other way. Allegations about a culture are not the same

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thing as proof about any one officer on any one night. However,

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Brady himself admitted to this conduct of fishing in Daniel's case.

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He admitted that he and Mortensen were drunk, they were

259
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off duty, they were driving around, They were harassing people

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in neighborhoods where they thought they could get away with it. So,

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even if the jury did not hear every complaint, every allegation,

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or every civil rights claim, the pattern was becoming visible.

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Brady was not just a reluctant witness who happened to

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do the right thing by coming forward. He was an

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officer who admitted that he had participated in the harassment

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that led to Daniel's death. He had his own internal

267
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affairs history, and his partnership with Mortenson had already generated

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serious complaints he was an officer whose role in the

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homicide investigation had been treated very differently from Mortenson's. That

270
00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:20.879
doesn't prove that Brady fired the gun. It does not

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undo the eyewitness testimony or erase the ballistics evidence, but

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it does explain why so many people kept asking whether

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the state star witness had been examined with the same

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skepticism that any ordinary suspect would have faced.

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The day after Mortenson was sentenced to life without parole,

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the Review Journal ran another story about Brady. The headline

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00:15:41.159 --> 00:15:43.720
said Mortenson had been present at a Brady traffic stop

278
00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:46.919
and that police might be asked to reopen a sexual

279
00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:52.279
assault probe involving Brady. The allegation came from Carrie Morris,

280
00:15:52.360 --> 00:15:54.840
a twenty six year old Las Vegas woman, who said

281
00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:57.159
Brady had coerced her into a sexual act during a

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traffic stop. According to the reporting, Morris said she'd been

283
00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:03.919
stopped on Wind Road in October of nineteen ninety six,

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about two months before Daniel Mendoza was killed. She said

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Brady called mortensonto the scene, searched her car, and then

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told her she had an outstanding traffic warrant and would

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00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:16.480
be taken to jail. Morris alleged that while she was

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00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:19.320
being taken to jail, Brady stopped in a vacant alley

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00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:22.240
and forced her to perform a sex act. She also

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00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:24.679
alleged that Brady threatened to plant drugs on her if

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she reported what had happened. Brady denied the allegations. His

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attorneys said the claims were false, publicity driven, and motivated

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by resentment toward law enforcement. Police had previously investigated Morris's

294
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complaint and said they did not have enough evidence to

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00:16:39.080 --> 00:16:44.679
support criminal charges. After the Mortenson verdict, Morris and her attorney,

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Andrew Meyers asked Clark County District Attorney Stuart Bell to

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take another look. Bell said that since they had a

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victim who wanted to proceed, prosecutors would meet with Metro

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and decide what they could prove and what they could

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not prove. Metro said it would honor the request us

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00:17:00.200 --> 00:17:03.000
to reopen communications about the issue. So in the days

302
00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:06.400
immediately after Mortenson was convicted and sentenced, the public was

303
00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:09.359
seeing a new version of Christopher Brady, not only as

304
00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:12.279
the witness who helps convict Mortenson, but as the former

305
00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:16.920
officer at the center of another serious allegation. I want

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to note that Morris's allegation did not result in a

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criminal conviction. The district attorney ultimately declined to prosecute Brady,

308
00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:28.079
saying that there was not enough evidence to successfully pursue charges.

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In a later decision, Bell reportedly concluded that something improper

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may have happened, but that the evidence was not strong

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enough to prove a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt.

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That is a narrow legal conclusion.

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This allegation continued to matter for two important reasons. One

314
00:17:47.960 --> 00:17:50.799
the more obvious one is because that it went directly

315
00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:53.960
to the question of Brady's credibility, his use of authority,

316
00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:56.759
and what the jury in the Mortenson trial didn't hear.

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But even more important was what Morris told authority that

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Brady had said during the incident. As a reminder, during

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00:18:04.119 --> 00:18:08.599
the trial on Daniel's murder, Mortenson testified that after the shooting,

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00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:10.880
when he asked Brady why he had fired the gun,

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00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:13.359
Brady told him I told you I was evil, man,

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I'm evil. According to later reporting, Morris said that when

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she asked Brady why he had assaulted her, he said,

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some people call me evil, and then laughing said something

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00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:26.279
like sometimes I call myself evil man, I am evil.

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Her attorney also said that a therapist who counseled Morris

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00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:33.519
was willing to testify that Morris had described Brady using

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00:18:33.519 --> 00:18:36.880
that language before Mortenson took the stand, which would show

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00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:40.119
that Carrie wasn't making up that part after she knew

330
00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:44.079
about Mortenson's testimony about what Brady said after the murder.

331
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:48.039
That phrase I am evil became one of the key

332
00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:52.000
pieces of Mortenson's post trial motions. His defense attorney later

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00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:54.519
argued that if jurors had known that another person had

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independently described Brady using that same evil language, it could

335
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have affected how they evaluated Mortenson's testimony. The state argued

336
00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:07.799
that Morris's allegation had serious credibility problems, that the evil

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00:19:07.880 --> 00:19:10.559
statement did not prove who fired the gon on mckeller circle,

338
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and that the evidence was not enough to justify a

339
00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:17.200
new trial. The court agreed with the state, and Mortenson

340
00:19:17.240 --> 00:19:19.519
was not granted a new trial. But from the perspective

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00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:22.039
of the people who never accept the clean version of

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Brady's role, the statement was hard to ignore and much

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00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:28.759
more than a coincidence. That line, which was one of

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the most theatrical parts of Mortenson's testimony feels much more

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likely to have been something that Brady actually said.

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The sexual assault allegation also created another layer of problems

347
00:19:39.160 --> 00:19:44.119
for Metro. Morris's attorney, Andrew Myers, was openly skeptical that

348
00:19:44.200 --> 00:19:47.119
Las Vegas police could investigate one of their own. In

349
00:19:47.160 --> 00:19:49.559
one article, he said that he did not feel that

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Metro could investigate itself properly and describe the situation as

351
00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:57.319
oppression under the color of law. Soon after the case

352
00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:00.880
began to move beyond metro internal affairs and LA prosecution,

353
00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:05.079
the FBI opened a civil rights inquiry into Christopher Brady,

354
00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:08.839
and on November seventh, nineteen ninety seven, a federal grand

355
00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:11.519
jury convened to look into his role during the shooting

356
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on McKellar Circle and the larger pattern of his alleged behavior.

357
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It's clear that his conduct that night was much larger

358
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than just a question for Metro's internal processes. We are

359
00:20:23.119 --> 00:20:24.880
going to pause here for our last break, but when

360
00:20:24.920 --> 00:20:26.960
we come back, we're going to talk about one final

361
00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:30.799
Brady accusation that would continue to haunt the case for decades.

362
00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:33.960
The final issue regarding Brady that we wanted to share

363
00:20:34.400 --> 00:20:36.640
is the one most directly connected to the night Daniel

364
00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:39.839
was killed. During Mortenson's trial, you might recall that his attorney,

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00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:43.279
Frank Kremen, said that he received an anonymous call claiming

366
00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:46.839
that Brady had previously talked to another Metro officer, Mark Barry,

367
00:20:47.240 --> 00:20:50.880
about wanting to do a drive by shooting. At the time,

368
00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:53.880
a prosecutor told the court that an investigator had spoken

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with Barry and that the claim was nonsense, so the

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00:20:56.720 --> 00:20:59.680
jury never heard from him. But a year later, in

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night Time teen ninety eight, Barry testified before the federal

372
00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:05.359
grand jury, and his account was not as the state

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00:21:05.400 --> 00:21:09.400
had called it nonsense. Mark Barry said that Brady had

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00:21:09.400 --> 00:21:12.359
mentioned doing a drive by several times. He said he

375
00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:14.720
had not taken the comments seriously at the time because

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00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:17.160
they had been drinking and blowing off steam and because

377
00:21:17.160 --> 00:21:20.119
the comment sounded like a joke. Barry also said that

378
00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:23.400
when the shooting on McKellar's Circle happened, those comments came

379
00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:26.839
back to him. He testified that after hearing about Daniel's death,

380
00:21:27.119 --> 00:21:30.200
he started thinking that maybe Brady had been serious. He

381
00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:33.079
used the phrase that he put two and two together

382
00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:36.440
when asked how many times Brady had talked about drybys.

383
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Barry could not give an exact number, but he agreed

384
00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:41.920
that a few times would be fair, and at one

385
00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:45.160
point half a dozen was suggested as a safe estimate.

386
00:21:46.119 --> 00:21:49.000
This was critical because it was not simply another allegation

387
00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:53.119
that Brady had been rude, aggressive, or careless. Brady had

388
00:21:53.160 --> 00:21:56.319
testified that the harassment on December twenty seventh was basically

389
00:21:56.359 --> 00:21:59.519
a spontaneous idea, something that just dawned on him that night.

390
00:21:59.599 --> 00:22:03.519
But Barry's later testimony, if credible, suggested Brady had talked

391
00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:07.920
about drive by violence before on several occasions. If believed,

392
00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:10.960
Barry's account went directly to the theory that Brady had

393
00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:14.119
talked before Daniel's murder about the very kind of violence

394
00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:17.279
that occurred on mckeller Circle, and certainly a jury may

395
00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:20.119
have doubted his story if they had heard that from Barry.

396
00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:24.559
Shockingly, despite what was presented at the murder trial, Barry

397
00:22:24.599 --> 00:22:28.319
testified to the federal grand jury that homicide detectives never

398
00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:31.480
came to talk to him. He said two people contacted

399
00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:33.880
him by phone during the trial, but he didn't know

400
00:22:33.880 --> 00:22:36.079
who they were, and because it involved a murder case,

401
00:22:36.119 --> 00:22:39.240
he wasn't willing to explain everything over the phone to strangers.

402
00:22:39.880 --> 00:22:42.240
He expected to be subpoenaed, and he said that he

403
00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:44.880
was prepared to say what he knew, but no subpoena came.

404
00:22:45.559 --> 00:22:48.920
The state's position then and later was that Barry's testimony

405
00:22:48.960 --> 00:22:51.440
did not prove Brady was the shooter and would not

406
00:22:51.559 --> 00:22:54.960
have changed the result of the trial. On October ninth,

407
00:22:55.039 --> 00:22:58.519
nineteen ninety eight, the state District Court held an evidentiary

408
00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:01.720
hearing on Mortenson's motion for a new trial, but determined

409
00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:07.000
that Barry's statements were insufficient to justify that request. Unsurprisingly,

410
00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:09.440
the Bary issue did not disappear. It became one of

411
00:23:09.480 --> 00:23:12.319
the key pieces of evidence Mortensen would keep returning to

412
00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:15.640
in his appeals decades later. We're going to get into

413
00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:18.200
those details in a later episode.

414
00:23:18.839 --> 00:23:21.960
It's no wonder that by the end of nineteen ninety seven,

415
00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:24.839
the public debate over whether Metro could be trusted to

416
00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:28.079
police itself was reaching a fever pitch in Las Vegas,

417
00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:31.440
as the deeper inquiry into Brady's actions, alleged abuses of

418
00:23:31.480 --> 00:23:33.960
power and whether he had violated the rights of the

419
00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:37.559
people he was sworn to protect, grew. On August twentieth,

420
00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:41.839
nineteen ninety nine, Christopher Brady pleaded guilty to vitolating the

421
00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:45.519
civil rights of Hispanic people. According to the reporting and

422
00:23:45.559 --> 00:23:48.279
case materials, he took the plea to avoid what was

423
00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:51.960
described as an inevitable indictment and the possibility of a

424
00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:56.200
life sentence. He was sentenced to nine years in federal prison,

425
00:23:56.559 --> 00:23:59.079
and in early two thousand, he surrendered at a federal

426
00:23:59.119 --> 00:24:04.119
prison in Minnesota. For Daniel's father, Ramon Mendoza, Brady's federal

427
00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:08.119
case brought something that sounded like acceptance. Ramon told the

428
00:24:08.160 --> 00:24:10.960
federal court during the sentencing, I don't know why there

429
00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:14.039
are so many people with such bad feelings. The decision

430
00:24:14.079 --> 00:24:17.160
that you make, I will respect. I have no anger

431
00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:19.480
against the person who did what he did to my son,

432
00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:23.559
because I leave it all in God's hands. And then

433
00:24:23.559 --> 00:24:26.039
he said something even simpler and maybe even sadder to

434
00:24:26.079 --> 00:24:29.480
the press. To a certain point, I think it's justice,

435
00:24:29.799 --> 00:24:34.480
but either way, my son isn't here any more. Brady's father,

436
00:24:34.599 --> 00:24:38.839
Mike Brady, saw it very differently. He told reporters, Chris

437
00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:41.440
essentially solved the case for them, and it's been downhill

438
00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:44.599
for him since then. In Mike Brady's view, his son

439
00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:47.279
had come forward, turned in the gun, and helped prosecutors

440
00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:50.720
prove the case against Mortensen. However, for people who had

441
00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:54.079
questioned Brady's treatment by Metro from the beginning, that version

442
00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:55.960
of the story skipped over the part that had always

443
00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:00.359
bothered them. Brady was never just an outside witness. At

444
00:25:00.359 --> 00:25:05.160
Brady's federal sentencing hearing, Mortenson's father, Larry and Mortenson's then wife, Zoe,

445
00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:08.519
were also present. Larry told the press that Brady's plea

446
00:25:08.599 --> 00:25:11.039
meant that Ron should get a new trial, and he

447
00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:13.640
said he would keep trying to prove that Brady, not

448
00:25:13.880 --> 00:25:17.160
his son, had killed Daniel. That argument would become the

449
00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:20.920
center of the next chapter. Mortenson's appeals, his motion for

450
00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:23.119
a new trial, and his attempts to use the evidence

451
00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:25.640
of Brady's misconduct would continue for years.

452
00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:28.920
In July of nineteen ninety nine, Mortenson wrote to Review

453
00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:33.279
Journal columnist John L. Smith defending his innocence. In that letter,

454
00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:36.599
he claimed, among other things, that one of Daniel's own

455
00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:39.960
friends or fellow gang members had actually shot him, and

456
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.079
that Brady and Mortensen had taken the fall. Smith's response

457
00:25:44.119 --> 00:25:47.039
was cutting, He wrote, it turns out that Mortenson is innocent.

458
00:25:47.160 --> 00:25:49.880
And Mendoza's own friends shot him and let the off

459
00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:52.759
duty cops take the fall. Something told me the letter

460
00:25:52.799 --> 00:25:53.680
would end that way.

461
00:25:54.519 --> 00:25:57.400
Brady's guilty plea did not answer every question about mc

462
00:25:57.480 --> 00:26:00.319
keeller circle, and it did not undo the damage done

463
00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:03.599
to Daniel Mendoza's family, but it did make one thing

464
00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:07.079
harder to ignore. We wanted to cover this case because

465
00:26:07.079 --> 00:26:10.240
it was never only about one night, one truck, or

466
00:26:10.279 --> 00:26:13.680
one officer who fired a gun. When the people sworn

467
00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:16.440
to protect a community become the source of harm, the

468
00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:20.960
question cannot only be who pulled the trigger. This is

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a story about a department, a culture, and the reality

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that Las Vegas was forced to face. As Roman Mendoza

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continued to carry the grief of losing his son, Activists, lawmakers,

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and residents asked what, if anything, Las Vegas was willing

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to change. Next week, we look at Ramone, the push

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for a citizen's review board, and the state of the

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city after Mortenson and Brady, and the larger question that

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Daniel's death left behind. When police power is abused, who

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has the authority to hold that power accountable. These questions

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are still relevant nearly thirty years later, because what happens here,

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happens everywhere.

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Thanks for listening. Visit sinspod dot com, slash subscribe for

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exclusive bonus content and to listen ad free. Remember to

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like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and threads

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at Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please

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leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice.

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You can contact us at questions at sinsnsurvivors dot com.

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00:27:43.119 --> 00:27:45.400
If you are someone you know as affected by domestic

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00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:48.759
violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources

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00:27:48.839 --> 00:27:51.759
or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources

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00:27:51.799 --> 00:27:55.000
is available on our website, Sins and Survivors dot com.

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Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, is research,

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00:27:58.880 --> 00:28:01.839
written and produced by your hosts Sean and John. The

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00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:04.359
information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time

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00:28:04.359 --> 00:28:07.759
of recording. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please

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00:28:07.799 --> 00:28:10.559
email us. Links to source material for this episode can

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00:28:10.599 --> 00:28:14.480
be found on our website, Sends and Survivors dot com.

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely

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those of the podcast creators, hosts, and their guests. All

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00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:26.079
individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not

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constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal

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professionals for guidance.