LAS VEGAS (KTNV) – Now we’re hearing from the man who was arrested on the Las Vegas Strip in May after the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said one of their own sergeants hit him to provoke an aggressive response.

Sgt. Suspended subway. Kevin Menon, 42, faces charges in two separate criminal cases.

Marquise Brown spoke exclusively to Channel 13 about her arrest on the pedestrian bridge between Caesars Palace and the Bellagio on May 3rd.
Brown, 31, is from Fresno, California, and had just moved to the Las Vegas Valley a week before his arrest.

“I was just walking on the bridge, enjoying my night,” Brown said. “Suddenly, I feel a hard blow on my shoulder on the right side.”

He told Channel 13 that he moved to Las Vegas hoping to start a new chapter.

“I graduated. I never had any problems,” Brown said. “I’ve got a license, a clean record, stuff like that, I’m just out here trying to make an honest living.

Surveillance video from the Bellagio appears to show Menon going out of his way to clash with Brown.

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“He looked like a pedestrian, but he seems angry. He seems crazy. I don’t know what his problem is,” Brown said. “He turns around and raises his hand and says, ‘Do you have a problem?’

Brown said he was trying to record the situation and when he asked “Do you have a problem?” back to Menon, then two officers arrested him.

He said he didn’t know Menon was a sergeant until he saw the Channel 13 story.

Menon was indicted in October by a Clark County grand jury on multiple charges, including oppression under color of law.

Surveillance video and Metro body camera footage were presented to the grand jury. During Brown’s arrest, he can be heard telling officers that another man hit him.

Officers Justin Candolesas and Stephen Cosaro placed Brown in handcuffs that night and testified before the grand jury that they saw Brown openly carry a knife, which is not allowed under the Clark County ordinance.

STOP | Body camera footage shows Sgt. Menon’s suspected arrest tactic, multiple officers testify

Body camera footage shows Sgt. Menon’s suspected arrest tactic, multiple officers testify

Both officers said they heard Brown say to Menon “Do you have a problem?” and they feared Brown would fight back.

But Brown said he is not a violent person and that the knife was an accessory he carries.

“I had a knife, yeah, but the knife wasn’t for anything like, you know, not even for protection,” Brown said. “It’s basically a leather knife holder. And I basically stand to the side, like cowboy style.”

After his arrest, Brown said he was taken to jail and went to court the next day. According to Las Vegas Justice Court records, Brown was facing a felony charge of illegal weapons acts on the Strip, but the charge was dropped in July.

“The whole process, from the time I got arrested until they let me go, it was just a pain in the ass, man, a pain in the ass,” Brown said. “It was a long process. It was a waste of time.”

Brown’s arrest was just one of several incidents shown to the grand jury in the case against Menon. According to police documentation, the arrests made were mostly of black men.

“I felt like I was being set up, but targeted, that’s like a harsh word,” Brown said. “This is just like reality, yes I was targeted.”

Brown now wants justice and hopes his side of the story will shed light.

“I didn’t want this situation to embitter me. I wanted to learn from it, so I stayed focused and tried to move on from it,” Brown said.

He said the experience changed his perspective on law enforcement in Las Vegas, and he hopes the other officers who worked alongside Menon are also held accountable.

“I feel like they were a really big part of it. They had as much to do with it as Sgt.,” Brown said. “If they felt, in any way in their heart, that it was wrong, they shouldn’t have done it.”

No other officers from Menon’s Flex Squad are currently facing charges.

Menon is due in court for a criminal charge on November 6.