asane

Family of suspended metro sergeant responds to allegations

Online Niel November 3, 2024

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The family of suspended Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sergeant Kevin Menon is responding to allegations he faces in two separate criminal cases.

Menon was indicted by a Clark County grand jury last month on charges that he staged illegal arrests on the Las Vegas Strip.

He was also arrested a second time in court as Metro Police said detectives found child sexual abuse material on two of his devices.

Menon’s family sent Channel 13 a statement.

“We have allowed ourselves to be ruled by fear and anger. The same politics of fear and fury – of fear and *hate* – that the LVMPD, LVPPA, and Clark County District Attorney’s Office have now engaged in, or, I should say, *continue* to engage in, I have determined to conspire to effectively lynch Sgt Menon – a highly decorated, highly educated black person who had previously faced blatant racism and abuses of power within the LVMPD”.

The family said Menon’s civil rights and those of his black wife and family were “violated”.

“They violated his house – twice – throwing cultural and religious symbols on the floor or in the garbage. They described him as “property” and likened his men to “rats and dogs”. They painted him as a thug, as a liar and now as a pervert,” Menon’s family said. “Sgt. Menon tried, in the spirit of Gandhi, to be the change he wanted to see within the LVMPD”.

Watch: Suspended subway sergeant writes own character letter in defense during investigation

The statement goes on to say that Menon is an “exemplary officer”.

“He is an asset to AND a reflection of the community he has served for over a decade — not including the decade he saved lives around the world as a paramedic,” the family states.

On Friday, Menon’s attorney, Dominic Gentile, filed an opposition to the state’s motion to increase Menon’s bail in the original case pending in district court.

Prosecutors want to raise his bail from $27,000 to $250,000 cash only.

Gentile called the request “entirely punitive” and that the state is trying to keep Menon in custody by any means necessary.

However, prosecutors say allegations against Menon of possession of child sexual abuse material were not known during the initial bail setting in his other case. They said there was the likelihood of more criminal activity and that he was sophisticated enough to try to cover it up.

Prosecutors said he deleted data from his Metro-issued work phone. Gentile said this probably happened when he gave Menon’s work phone to an IT person.

Attached to Gentile’s motion is a character statement written by Menon himself.

In it, he writes:

“I’m a 42-year-old, bi-racial, first-generation American. My father was born in British India where he became a doctor and served in the Indian Army before moving to the United States and serving as a captain in the United States Navy My mother was born in the Netherlands and worked as a nurse in a variety of functions. age 14…”

Menon said he was selected by Sheriff Kevin McMahill to represent Metro in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for an international law enforcement exchange program just months after his promotion to sergeant.

Channel 13 obtained photos from that trip on the International Association of Chiefs of Police social media pages.