Questions remain unanswered in case against former state lawmaker

In the ongoing criminal case against former Nevada Assemblyman Steven Brooks, prosecutors won’t say why they’ve dropped two of his charges and police have refused to release body camera footage of his arrest.

Brooks, 52, was arrested June 27 after a vehicle pursuit with police and faces charges of felony assault and disobeying a police officer. Police pursued Brooks after he threatened an officer and asked police to “shoot it out,” according to a Metropolitan Police Department report.

But court records show the Clark County district attorney’s office has dropped two of the charges Brooks was initially facing: Resisting a public officer with a dangerous weapon and driving under the influence.

It’s not clear why.

The district attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Brooks appeared briefly in Las Vegas Justice Courton Wednesday, and is due back in September.

Public defender Rachel Howard and prosecutor Brady Lange declined to comment afterwards.

Metro’s report said that Brooks waved a shiny object while encouraging police to have a shootout and that he drove at officers. His vehicle and theirs collided, according to police.

When Brooks eventually stopped, police said, he had a knife and ignored commands to surrender. He was cursing, “yelling incoherently” and stumbling, police said. Police shot at him about six times with a “low-lethality shotgun” and used a police dog to arrest him, according to Metro.

Police then took Brooks to University Medical Center for “minor injuries.” The report doesn’t say how they were caused.

A Metro officer decided he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Brooks was sedated and had blood taken for a blood test.

A judge had to authorize the blood test because he was sedated. The report said a screen was requested for marijuana.

Metro routinely releases body camera footage, but declined a Las Vegas Review-Journal request for video of his arrest on July 2, citing his open court case and an ongoing investigation by the agency’s force investigation team.

The department has since closed the force investigation, according to Metro. But Det. Stephanie Dunn, who works in the body worn camera unit, said the footage could not be released because of the pending case.

That’s a policy for all criminal cases that was created by Metro’s legal department, she said. Its purpose is to protect a suspect’s right to a fair trial, she said.

“I don’t know if I buy that,” said West Juhl, a spokesperson for the ACLU of Nevada. “I don’t know how legally they can distinguish this from any other public record.”

The ACLU forced the Clark County School District to release body camera footage earlier this year, but only after suing and getting a court order.

“Nevada’s body cam policies are not serving the public in their current form,” Juhl said. “They’re supposed to help the public hold police accountable, and instead we see fight after fight just to get access to body cam footage.”

Brooks was expelled from the Nevada Legislature in 2013 after he threatened to kill Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, because he was reportedly upset about not being made chair of the Ways and Means Committee. He was the first lawmaker to be expelled. Brooks represented North Las Vegas as a Democrat.

In 2014, he pleaded no contest in California to evading a police officer and resisting arrest. In 2015, he was sentenced to probation for charges that stemmed from a domestic battery case.

Brooks has been released from jail on $20,000 bail and appeared at court Wednesday in a beige suit. He held a paper in front of his face to try to keep a photographer from taking his picture.

Senior Judge James Bixler was curious about the presence of members of the media at the hearing. “I don’t understand why this has attracted some attention, but I suspect there is more to this case than appears,” he said.

Brooks and Howard told him Brooks was a former assemblyman.

Bixler didn’t seem to hear the former part.

“Is he still in the assembly?” he asked.

“No, sir,” Brooks said.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.