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After Daniel Mendoza's murder, Las Vegas had to decide what
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accountability was supposed to mean. Was it enough to punish
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one officer or did the city have to look at
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the system that let him wear a badge in the
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first place.
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That question would follow Daniel's family from the courthouse to
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city Hall, from police headquarters to the streets of McKellar Circle,
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because years later, Ramon Mendoza was still asking if his
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youngest son was any safer than Daniel had been.
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Hi, and Welcome to Sinson Survivors, a Las Vegas true
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crime podcast where we focus on missing persons, unsolved cases,
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and the number one cause of homicide in the Las
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Vegas area, domestic violence.
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I'm your host Sean and I'm your co host John.
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This is part six of our series on the murder
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of Daniel Mendoza, a young man shot in a drive
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by shooting carried out by two Las Vegas Metro police officers.
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If you have not listened to parts one through five yet,
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we strongly recommend going back and starting there. You can
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visit sinspod dot co Slash one twenty nine to hear
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part one, where we introduced Daniel, his family, and the
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Las Vegas of the nineteen nineties, a city growing quickly
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and struggling with questions about gangs, race, policing, and public trust.
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In Part two, we followed the first days after Daniel
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was killed, as Christopher Brady came forward, turned over Ron
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Mortenson's gun, and became the state's key witness. In parts
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three and four, we covered Mortenson's trial, where, despite the
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defense's attempt to blame the shooting on Brady, the jury
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ultimately convicted Mortensen a first degree murder and he was
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sentenced to life without parole. Last week, we turned to
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Brady and the allegations, complaints, and federal scrutiny that followed
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him after the verdict. This this week, we're talking about
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how Daniel's murder became a public test for Metro, their
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internal affairs capabilities, hiring in discipline practices, and whether the
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city was willing to change once the verdicts were secured,
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and the initial shock and horror began to fade.
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When Ron Mortensen was convicted. Some people in Las Vegas
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saw the verdict as proof that the system had worked,
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and for some officers, especially the ones working in Daniel's neighborhood,
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the verdict was a relief. Sheriff Jerry Keller released a
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statement saying it was time for the department and the
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community to find closure. The Review Journal described officers near
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mckeller's circle smiling, joking with kids, and saying the community
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could now see that Mortensen had been held to the
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same standard as anyone else. Officer Travis White told the
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paper closure feels good, but for Daniel's family, closure wasn't
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that simple. As Raman Mendoza said, prison terms were of
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little interest to him because no sentence would help his
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grieving family. Nothing could bring Daniel back. The reaction in
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predominantly Latino neighborhoods was complicated despite Mortensen's conviction. In Brady's
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Guilty play, Otto Marita, then the executive director of the
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Latin Chamber of Commerce and a board member of Hispanics
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and Politics, said he was satisfied with the verdict but
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still troubled by broader questions of police harassment. His question
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was direct, if off duty officers were harassing Latino people
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on neighborhood corners, was that typical? Did they go to
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summerland in Green Valley and do the same thing. So
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when police leaders talked about closure, many people in Daniel's neighborhood,
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members of the Latino community, and civil rights leaders were
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not ready to use that word and probably never would be.
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In February nineteen ninety seven, the Mendoza family filed a
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civil rights lawsuit against Ron Mortensen, Christopher Brady, the Las
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Vegas Metro Police Department, Sheriff Jerry Keller, and the City
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of Las Vegas. The lawsuit argued that Daniel's civil rights
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had been violated when he was shot to death in
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front of his home at five point thirty seven Mckeller circle.
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A Las Vegas Sun article from May of nineteen ninety
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seven explained by the Mendoza family's lawsuit was going to
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be difficult to win. Around the same time as the
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suit was filed, the U. S. Supreme Court issued a
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ruling in Board of County Commissioners of Brian County v. Brown,
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a case involving an Oklahoma deputy sheriff who had been
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hired despite warning signs in his background. The Supreme Court
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held that even a poor hiring decision does not automatically
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make a local government financially liable when that officer later
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violates someone's rights. That meant that for the Mendoza's civil case,
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proving Metro made a bad hire would not be enough.
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The family would have to show that Metro's own deliberate decisions,
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including hiring, training, supervision, or discipline, were directly connected to
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Daniel's death. Mortenson's hiring history gave Ramone's attorneys something to
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point to, as we mentioned earlier in the series, According
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to the Las Vegas Sun, Mortinson became a Metro officer
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despite a negative recommendation from a background investigator who had
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concerns that Mortenson had misled Metro about his employment history.
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The personnel director overruled that recommendation and hired him anyway.
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Ramone's attorney argued that the hiring decisions showed negligence and
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that Metro should be held responsible. Metro's former attorney said
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the Supreme Court ruling gave the department another argument for
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getting the case dismissed. Early Daniel's family was facing the
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reality that proving that Las Vegas Metro Police Department itself
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should be held responsible for Daniel's murder could be much
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more difficult than proving Mortenson's guilt in the criminal trial.
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For the Mendoza family, this lawsuit was not just about money,
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even though it sought damages. It was about whether Metro
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could be held accountable and whether the warning signs that
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preceded Daniel's death would ever be treated as anything more
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than two bad apples.
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The Mendoza family's pursuit of accountability would take more than
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two years. In August nineteen ninety seven, US District Judge
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Philip pro dismissed the lawsuit against the City of Las Vegas,
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and Sheriff Keller in his individual capacity, remained a defendant
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in his official capacity, though the Mendozes were also barred
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from seeking punitive damages from the police department because municipal
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entities cannot be held liable for punitive damages in civil
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rights cases. Metro motioned to be removed from the case altogether,
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but Judge Pro did not agree. At first, he gave
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the family more time to investigate and bring forward evidence
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showing that Mortenson and Brady's wrongful acts were related to
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their police duties. If so, then the department could be
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found liable. However, that investigation became its own battle. In
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December nineteen ninety seven, they amended their complaint to add
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homicide detective Brent Becker as a defendant. Becker had been
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the lead investigator in Daniel's murder. The attorneys for the
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Mendoza family argued that detectives should have arrested Christopher Brady
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in addition to Ron Mortensen. Their motions stopped short of
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saying that the police had arrested the wrong man, but
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it asserted that investigators should not have treated Brady so leniently.
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The Mendozes alleged that Brady should have, at a minimum,
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been considered a suspect, and they pointed to de tales
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such as the physical lineup, witness descriptions, and clothing descriptions
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that the family's attorneys believed investigators had treated too narrowly.
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Becker defended his investigation, telling reporters that people were going
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to interpret it how they wanted, but if they were
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claiming that Chris Brady did it, they were wrong. He
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said his conscience was clear. We don't want to reiterate
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all the details from earlier parts of the series. Many
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of the details about the investigation in Brady's role in
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the shooting became part of a larger accusation that Brady
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had received the benefit of the doubt and some level
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of protection because he was a well connected police officer. Meanwhile,
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the people in Daniel's neighborhood were treated as suspects, gang members,
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or unreliable witnesses. As Brady had been investigated for violating
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the civil rights of Hispanic people, it seemed to follow
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that the actions of the department and investigators would have
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also violated Daniel's rights. The Mendoza family's attorneys also used
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the civil rights case to lay out the broader theory
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we have been tracking throughout the series. They alleged that
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Metro and Sheriff Keller had failed to prevent an ongoing
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pattern involving Brady and other officers harassing people in Las
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Vegas neighborhoods. They pointed to the concept of fishing, the
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alleged practice of off duty police officers going into low
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income and distressed neighborhoods looking for confrontations. The complaints said
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that Metro supervisors knew about these activities and failed to
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stop them. Throughout the case, Metro and former supervisors were
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disputing how much was known and what could be proven.
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During nineteen ninety eight and nineteen ninety nine, the lawsuit continued,
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with the Mendoza family at odds with the police department.
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The Mendoza family's attorneys accused Metro of failing to turn
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over internal documents They wanted, citizen complaints against Brady and Mortensen,
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along with notes and reports generated by officers involved in
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the Mendoza investigation. One of the records at issue involved
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Sergio Costa, which we talked about last week, who had
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filed a civil rights lawsuit after alleging that Brady and
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Mortensen falsely arrested him on December ninth, nine, teen ninety six,
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about three weeks before Daniel was killed. Mendoza family's attorneys
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argued that they only learned about a Costa's complaint because
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Acosta came to their same law firm seeking legal help.
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This was critical to the family's argument. They were trying
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to show a pattern that Brady and Mortensen had engaged
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in misconduct before mckeller's circle, and that Metro officials knew
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or should have known, and should have done something about it.
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A federal magistrate ultimately declined to hold Metro in contempt
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over withholding those documents, but he did not completely let
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the department off the hook. Judge Roger Hunt said Metro's
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failure may not have been intentional, but the documents should
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have been produced sooner and the incident should have been
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brought to the family's attention. He ordered the department to
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pay five hundred dollars in attorney's fees to reimburse the
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Mendoza family for the cost of bringing the contempt motion.
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Metro's attorneys called it an oversight, saying it had fallen
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through the cracks, and said all related documents had now
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been produced. That phrase falls in through the cracks is
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a poetic choice of words, because the whole point of
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Hermon's civil case was that people, complaints, warnings, and misconduct
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allegations had seemingly been falling through the cracks for years
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until his son was killed. Eventually, one part of the
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civil case was settled in February nineteen ninety nine. The
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Mendoza family reached a fifty thousand dollars settlement with Ron Mortenson.
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Their attorney, Kenneth Roberts, called it a modest amount, which
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is truly an understatement considering that a person's life was taken. However,
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that money from a homeowner's policy was the only money
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available that they could get from Mortenson. Roberts said that
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the family agreed to the settlement and the amount because
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the Mortenson family had no remaining assets after the criminal
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trial other than this homeowner's insurance policy, and he said
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that if the case had gone forward, the Mendozes could
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have ended up with nothing. The settlement did not end
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the entire lawsuit the claims involving Metro, Keller, Brady and
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others continued to pause here for a quick break, but
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will be right back to discuss how the civil lawsuit
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ultimately resolved.
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In June nineteen ninety nine, the civil case took another
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major turn. Judge pro completely dismissed Metro and Sheriff Keller
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from the lawsuit, ruling they were not liable for Daniel's death.
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The ruling was devastating to the Mendoza family. The judge
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clearly drew a line between what Brady and Mortenson had
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done and what the department could be legally held responsible for.
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Judge pro noted that Brady and Mortenson were off duty,
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not in uniform, didn't identify themselves as police officers, and
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that Mortensen had used a privately owned gun and ammunition.
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In the court's view, Daniel's death was not the foreseeable
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result of any danger Metro might have created for Metro.
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That ruling was a victory in a case that had
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damaged the department's image for two and a half years.
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The Mendoza's attorney, Roberts, said the lawsuit had uncovered flaws
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in Metro's hiring of officers. He said he was prevented
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from discussing the specifics because of gag order, but he
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argued that the case would have disclosed some of the
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reasons Metro had problems, particularly in hiring practices and background checks.
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He also said something that gets to the heart of
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the civil case and what ramon was truly after the
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actions of Metro affect everyone in Clark County. It was
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never just about Daniel. Roberts said the family was considering
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an appeal. He also said Brady had not been dismissed
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from the lawsuit, though he acknowledged it was unlikely the
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family would ever recover significant damages from him. As Roberts
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put it, Brady might be a wage jarner for the
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rest of his life, but there would never be enough
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money to adequately compensate the Mendoza family for Daniel's death.
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At the time Ramon's civil lawsuit was moving through the courts,
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the public accountability fight was also raging as lawmakers headed
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up to Carson City to push reforms through the legislature.
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Almost immediately after Mortenson's conviction, lawmakers and activists were saying
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Daniel's murder might have been prevented if the public had
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the ability to investigate problems inside Metro. As States sentator
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Joe Neil put it, Daniel's murder and the actions of
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the officers showed that someone objective should be looking over
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the police, making sure they weeded out bad cops before
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someone else got killed. Metro officials said they were beginning
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to screen recruits more stringently, but they also argued that
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more civilian control over the department would not have saved Daniel.
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Metro and the community were divided from the beginning. For
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police officials, Daniel's murder was something that reforms could not
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have prevented two off duty officers drinking, behaving criminally, and
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acting outside of the scope of their duties. For lawmakers
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and police watchdogs, the case showed the opposite.
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It showed that the.
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Public needed a way to identify warning signs, review misconduct complaints,
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and make sure the department could not simply handle its
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own problems behind closed doors. In nineteen ninety seven, the
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Nevada Senate passed Senator Joe Neil's bill allowing cities and
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counties to create civilian police review boards, and Assemblyman wend
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To Williams introduced a similar proposal in the Assembly. However,
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the arguments became heated because the question was not just
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whether a view board should exist, but whether it actually
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would be effective. Would it be able to investigate complaints itself,
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or would it only review what a department's eternal affairs
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bureau had already done. Would it have subpoena power, would
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it recommend discipline, would its findings be public? Would it
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be independent or would it just become another layer of
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bureaucracy that gave the appearance of oversight without shifting any
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real power. The debate continued for years.
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The state law granted cities and counties the authority to
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create civilian review boards for law enforcement, but the law
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did not create the Metro board by itself. It only
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opened the door. The Fiscal Affairs Committee of the Metro
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Police Department voted unanimously to move the proposal for a
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city board forward. A department spokesperson called it history in
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the making. However, there was a major disagreement over what
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the board should be allowed to do. A board that
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could investigate might have real power. A board that could
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only review Metro's work after the fact might become something
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closer to justice second opinion, or worse, a rubber stamp.
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Would it investigate complaints independently, or would it just review
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investigations after Metro's own internal affairs bureau had already completed them.
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During the meeting, Senator Joe Neil clashed publicly with under
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Sheriff Richard Wingnett over that very issue. Wing Nitt said
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lawmakers had intended only to let citizens review completed internal
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affairs investigations. Neil, who was the one who actually had
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drafted the enabling law, said wing it was wrong. He
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argued the law allowed a citizen review board to investigate
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complaints before those complaints went to internal affairs. According to
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the Review Journal, Neil stood up and told Wingnet, I
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don't want any police officer to come up here and
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tell me, with twenty six years in the legislature that
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I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Neil and
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many other advocates believe the review board had to have
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teeth and real power. The difference between review and investigation
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meant the difference between meaningful oversight and just theater. Some
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local leaders seemed concerned about cost, bureaucracy, and how much
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authority civilian should really have over police discipline. Police officials
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worried about duplicating internal affairs or interfering with departmental procedures,
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so even though there was public support for oversight, the
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details kept slowing everything down.
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Frandy Forsman, the federal public defender who helped draft the
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proposed city ordinance, said the board would need a screening
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process to weed out for the list complaints, but she
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also said the strength of the board would depend on
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the quality of the people chosen to serve on it.
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Gregory Packed from the ACLU supported the proposal too, but
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he warned that a long fight was still ahead. He
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worried elected officials might not take the ordinance seriously enough,
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or that they might create a board without adequate funding
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that he said would be a tragedy. This debate continued
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in parallel with Ramone's civil case, and by late nineteen
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ninety nine, the delay in getting the board off the
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ground led the Review Journal's editorial page to run a
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piece with the headline stop the foot Dragging. The editorial
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argued that Las Vegas needed to give the police review
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board concept a chance to work, and appointed directly to
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Daniel Mendoza's murder as the case that had brought years
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of dissatisfaction with police accountability to a boiling point. Daniel
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had been gone for almost three years, and Las Vegas
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still did not have a civilian review board. It's also
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important to note that the editorial also criticized the existing
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coroner's inquest system, saying it no longer commanded public faith
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or confidence because its outcomes were so predictable they could
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almost be called in advance. So the review board debate
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was not only about Daniel. It was about a larger
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crisis of trust and law enforcement, and in how police
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shootings and misconduct complaints were handled in the city of
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Las Vegas, and then, of course, Oscar Goodman entered the fight. Goodman,
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who had recently become mayor and would become one of
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the most recognizable political figures in modern Las Vegas history,
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criticized the proposed board as too weak. He said that
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as far as he was concerned, it was a waste
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of money to create a panel like that because it
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did not have enough power and did not included an
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accountable public official. Oscar said that if it were up
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to him, he would scrap the proposal and start over.
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He said he would try to give the board more power,
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including the power to impose sanctions on police officers, but
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Franni Forceman said the state law did not allow the
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board to have that kind of authority. Goodman also wanted
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elected officials to serve on the panels. Critics pushed back,
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arguing that putting elected officials on the board would just
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politicize the process and weaken its independence. So the fight
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became circular. Some people said the board was too weak
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to be worth creating. Others said the endless delay was
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exactly how this reform was going to die. Advocates worried that,
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after years of public pressure, Las Vegas might end up
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with a review board that looked like accountability but did
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not have the independence or authority to earn public trust.
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Finally, in January of two thousand, after months of city
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county disputes and years of debate, the Las Vegas City
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Council approved an ordinance creating the Metropolitan Police Citizen Review Board.
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Mayor Goodman still called it inadequate and said a real
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review board needed teeth, but he didn't block it. Even
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before its members were chosen, residents were already filing complaints
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of police misconduct with the commission's staff. The new executive
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director said the office was receiving questions and complaints daily.
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The LVMPD Citizen's Review Board still exists today, and if
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you visit their website, it clearly states that the board
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was formed in response to the murder of Daniel Mendoza.
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Even as Las Vegas slowly moved toward a review board,
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the broader question of police accountability kept resurfacing, especially regarding
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officer hiring. In July of nineteen ninety eight, while Christopher
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Brady was still under federal scrutiny, he applied to become
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a cructions officer with the City of Henderson Police Department.
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By then, Brady had resigned for Metro. He had testified
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under oath that he and Ron Mortensen had been out
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harassing people the night Daniel was killed, as well as
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all the other questionable things he did that night and
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the next morning. Yet, less than two years after Daniel
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Mendoza was killed, Brady was trying to get back into
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law enforcement. According to the Review Journal, Brady passed the
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written test and the physical test, and he made it
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onto the list of certified applicants. His attorney argued that
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Brady had the right to continue his career and said
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that of all the people he had known in law enforcement,
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Brady was one of the better ones, which, given the
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facts admitted to on the record, to me, feels like
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an indictment of the entire police department. Frank Kremin, Mortensen's
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defense attorney, saw it differently. He said he would be
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surprised if the City of Henderson took Brady's application seriously.
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He cut through all the disputed evidence and said, let's
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just forget for a second there was a murder. He
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still admitted to harassing people citizens for what he thought
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was fun. Brady's attempt to join the Henderson police directly
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addresses the question that Las Vegas was supposedly trying to answer,
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what does accountability actually mean in law enforcement? Can a
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law enforcement system look at his record, his own admissions,
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his role in one of the most infamous police scandals
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in Las Vegas history, and still decide that he belonged
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back in a position of authority. We're going to pause
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here for another break, but we'll be right back.
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A few days later, Brady was cut from Henderson p
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D's hiring list after what the city described as a
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personality assessment. Henderson officials said it wasn't a psychological exam.
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Brady's attorney said the decision was political, but the damage
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was already done, at least in terms of public trust,
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because the system had gotten far enough that Brady was
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a certified applicant for people already questioning police hiring, background
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checks and internal discipline. This was not reassuring. It was
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just another warning sign. Later in nineteen ninety nine, another
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hiring story raised some concerns from a different direction. The
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00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:54.640
Review Gional reported that Metro had hired a former Illinois
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police officer named Michael Whitty after a background check failed
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to uncover serious allegations from his past. Whittey was later
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forced to resign, and Metro officials said his case was unusual.
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They said that he had slipped through the cracks, a
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phrase we'd often heard from Metro in the late nineties
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as more and more errors rose to the surface. A
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00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:17.240
background check that does not stop a hire, or a
399
00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:21.000
citizen complaint that goes nowhere, or a misconduct allegation that
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00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:24.799
doesn't trigger scrutiny or discipline, even a former officer trying
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00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:28.279
to move into another jurisdiction were all painted as one offs.
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The department was adamant it had changed, but yet another
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00:22:32.920 --> 00:22:36.119
incident had surfaced, proving how easily warning signs can be
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00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:39.759
missed and misconduct could be ignored. Metro had a serious
405
00:22:39.799 --> 00:22:43.559
credibility problem. The department claimed that it had improved training,
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expanded background investigations, added review procedures, and taken steps to
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prevent something like Daniel's killing from ever happening again. These
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reforms may have been real, However, the public questioned whether
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the culture and systems had changed, and whether those in
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power were actually willing to act on warning signs before
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another tragedy.
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Following Christopher Brady's guilty plea in August of nineteen ninety nine,
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Ramone Mendoza spoke at a news conference and said that
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whatever changes Metro had made since Daniel's murder had not
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resulted in better treatment for minorities. He said that the
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police were still racist and that his youngest son, who
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was thirteen years old, was still being harassed. Everything is
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the same, Ramone said, my youngest son, when they see him,
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they stop him, search him, make him take his shirt
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off to make sure he's not carrying anything. Those facts
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refute every official claim that the city had turned a corner.
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Daniel's family was not talking about police misconduct as an
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abstract issue of policy. They were talking about a daily
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reality in which a thirteen year old boy, Daniel's little brother,
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could still be treated like a suspect simply because of
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where he lived and who the police assumed him to be.
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Ramone emphasized that this one beyond his own family. He
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said he believed there was widespread prejudice against Hispanics in
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southern Nevada, and his words were direct. The way I
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see it, The Hispanic people here are not welcome in
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our country, so we get racism from everyone. He said,
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they forget we are human. His comments are devastating because
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beneath every argument over hiring standards and internal affairs files
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are Las Vegas families deeply affected by these policies. Ramone's
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statement highlights that the people in that neighborhood are seen
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first as threats, suspects, and problems, rather than as human
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beings with families, histories, futures, and the right to live
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in their own neighborhoods without harassment.
439
00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:40.799
Metro, of course, saw the situation differently. Steve Merriweather, speaking
440
00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:44.039
for the department, said Metro had made dramatic changes since
441
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Daniel's killing. He pointed to Sheriff Jerry Keller making cultural
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awareness training mandatory at the police Academy, to changes in
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hiring and background investigations, and to a new review process
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for recruits when questions came up during hiring. Meriweather said
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that department had doubled the number of background investigators, added
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a board to make certain hiring decisions that had once
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been made by one person, and increased recruiting efforts to
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bring in a more ethnically diverse group of officers at
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the time. He said Metro was about eighty two percent white,
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about seven percent Hispanic, about nine percent Black, about one
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percent Asian, and less than one percent Native American. Metro
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asserted they had made significant changes in training, hiring, discipline, recruitment,
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and so on. The department claimed that Daniel's murder had
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forced it to look inward and adjusted systems. Ramon and
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his neighbors, though, were measuring change in a different way.
456
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Ramon wasn't looking at the department's demographics. He was interested
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in whether his son could walk through the neighborhood without
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being stopped, searched and told to take off his shirt.
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He wasn't comforted by the new hiring board. He was
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asking whether the culture that made officers think Daniel's neighborhood
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was a place to go mess around had actually been confronted.
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Gary Peck from the ACLU commented on the tension that
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had permeated Mhann's neighborhood. He gave Sheriff Keller credit for
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speaking out against the hate crimes in civil rights violations
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and for saying the department had implemented an early warning
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00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:13.279
system to help prevent similar incidents. But Peck also said
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serious questions remained about how Metro had investigated Daniel's murder,
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and then he made the point that the problems of
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bigotry and prejudice were not confined to one or two officers.
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That reality was brought to the surface after Daniel's murder
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and from the detailed investigations that ensued. Was this truly
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a story about two rogue officers inside an otherwise sound
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and just system, or was it a story about a
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system that mist minimized, explained, or looked the other way
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at too many warning signs? How wide were the cracks
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that things kept slipping through.
477
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Some things did change after Daniel was murdered, but it
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wasn't the same as repair. Repair would have meant that
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Ramon could look at his young sign and say, this
480
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city's learned something. Repair would have meant that Daniel's neighborhood
481
00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:00.000
was no longer treated like a place where officers could
482
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:03.519
go looking for trouble. Repair would have meant that warning
483
00:27:03.559 --> 00:27:06.160
signs were not just noted in a report after the fact,
484
00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:10.000
but also acted on before harm became irreversible. It would
485
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:12.240
have also meant that a person who admitted to harassing
486
00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:15.000
citizens for fun could not get as far as Brady
487
00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:17.440
did in trying to return to a job in law enforcement.
488
00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:21.000
If the same systems still find ways to describe warning
489
00:27:21.039 --> 00:27:24.000
signs as isolated mistakes, then the public has a right
490
00:27:24.039 --> 00:27:27.839
to ask what change beyond the paperwork. Raman Mendoza's answer
491
00:27:27.839 --> 00:27:31.079
in nineteen ninety nine was brutally simple. Everything is the same.
492
00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:34.400
Those were the words of a father who had already
493
00:27:34.440 --> 00:27:38.319
sat through a murder trial, a sentencing, a civil lawsuit,
494
00:27:38.599 --> 00:27:41.880
a federal civil rights case, and years of public promises,
495
00:27:42.200 --> 00:27:44.880
and still when he looked at his family's life, he
496
00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:48.480
saw the same suspicion falling on another son. We know
497
00:27:48.680 --> 00:27:50.880
that Las Vegas created a review board, We know that
498
00:27:50.960 --> 00:27:54.359
Metro announced reforms. We know that ultimately Brady faced some
499
00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:57.400
federal accountability. But the harder question is whether any of
500
00:27:57.440 --> 00:27:59.799
those changes reached the families on McKellar Circle.
501
00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:03.599
Next week, we move into the long legal afterlife of
502
00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:07.160
this case. While Las Vegas debated oversight and Metro tried
503
00:28:07.160 --> 00:28:10.960
to move on, Ron Mortensen kept fighting his conviction from prison.
504
00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:14.920
The Barry drive by testimony would come back. They carry
505
00:28:14.920 --> 00:28:18.079
more as sexual assault allegation would come back. The jury
506
00:28:18.119 --> 00:28:21.960
instructions would come back, and decades later, this case would
507
00:28:21.960 --> 00:28:24.720
reach a point no one in that courtroom in nineteen
508
00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:27.759
ninety seven could have predicted. But this week we end
509
00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:31.400
with Ramon Mendoz's warning. If the aftermath of Daniel's murder
510
00:28:31.440 --> 00:28:35.640
shows us anything, it's that accountability cannot only mean punishing
511
00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:38.839
one person after the worst has already happened. It has51200:28:38.920 --> 00:28:41.720
to mean asking why some neighborhoods are watched so heavily51300:28:42.160 --> 00:28:45.599
and protected so poorly. It has to mean judging reform51400:28:45.799 --> 00:28:48.279
not by how many new policies are announced or implemented,51500:28:48.720 --> 00:28:51.440
whether the people most harmed by the old system can51600:28:51.480 --> 00:28:53.759
actually feel something different in their daily lives.51700:28:54.000 --> 00:28:56.880
And it has to mean remembering Daniel Mendoza not only51800:28:56.920 --> 00:28:59.000
as the young man who was killed, but as the51900:28:59.079 --> 00:29:01.559
young man whose death forced Las Vegas to confront a52000:29:01.640 --> 00:29:05.000
question it had not fully answered. Who gets protected and52100:29:05.039 --> 00:29:29.160
who gets policed? Because what happens here happens everywhere. Thanks52200:29:29.200 --> 00:29:33.720
for listening, visit sinspod dot co, slash subscribe for exclusive52300:29:33.720 --> 00:29:37.640
bonus content and to listen ad free. Remember to like52400:29:37.759 --> 00:29:41.519
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can contact us at questions at sinsnsurvivors dot com.52800:29:52.240 --> 00:29:54.519
If you are someone you know as affected by domestic52900:29:54.599 --> 00:29:57.880
violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources53000:29:57.960 --> 00:30:00.960
or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. List of resources is53100:30:00.960 --> 00:30:05.480
available on our website, Sinsensurvivors dot com. Sins and Survivors,53200:30:05.519 --> 00:30:08.359
a Las Vegas true crime podcast, is research, written and53300:30:08.440 --> 00:30:11.799
produced by your hosts Sean and John. The information shared53400:30:11.799 --> 00:30:14.039
in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording.53500:30:14.519 --> 00:30:17.480
If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us.53600:30:17.599 --> 00:30:20.039
Links to source material for this episode can be found53700:30:20.039 --> 00:30:23.319
on our website, sinsensurvivors dot com.53800:30:23.839 --> 00:30:26.839
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely53900:30:26.920 --> 00:30:31.240
those of the podcast creators, hosts, and their guests. All54000:30:31.240 --> 00:30:35.200
individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not54100:30:35.319 --> 00:30:39.400
constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal54200:30:39.400 --> 00:30:40.559
professionals for guidance.
