Arrest report: Retired Las Vegas officer thought girl was ‘hooker’
Kirk Hooten, a recently retired Metropolitan Police Department officer, admitted he thought a “hooker” he tried to force into his truck earlier this month was “a younger girl,” estimating she was “16, 17, 18, maybe,” according to his arrest report.
The girl was 16.
“She was cute,” he said during an interview with detectives at Metro’s headquarters Nov. 17, two days after the alleged crime. “I thought she would have been one of the best-looking hookers in the area.”
Asked by one of the detectives whether he would have paid the girl for sexual acts if she had been interested, the 51-year-old said, “Maybe if she was interested, yeah.”
Hooten, who retired in April and is married to a sergeant in the department’s sex crimes bureau, was arrested Thursday on one count of soliciting a child for prostitution. He was free on $10,000 bond as of Tuesday, jail and court records show.
“Hooten stated he used to be in Vice and admitted that he still cat-calls hookers when he is roaming around to see their reaction,” detectives wrote in the report. Vice is responsible for investigating prostitution and sex trafficking crimes.
New details surrounding his arrest were contained in his arrest report, which was released Tuesday by the Las Vegas Justice Court. A request directly to Metro for the report was denied Friday despite the fact that the agency’s public records division routinely releases arrest reports for suspects not affiliated with the department.
Facebook post
Hooten’s attorney, David Chesnoff, has told the Las Vegas Review-Journal: “People should not rush to judgment. We will address the allegations in court, which is the proper place to do it.”
Metro detectives became aware of the alleged crime after coming across a Facebook post Nov. 15 from the girl’s sister.
“Some white man tried to take my lil 16 year old sister today while she was walking near mlk and bonanza,” she wrote in the post, according to the report. “y’all our young GIRLS are not safe he tried to force her to get in the car.”
Attached to the post were three photos of a tan Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck and its license plate, which detectives said is registered to Hooten.
Meanwhile, detectives tracked down the Facebook user and her sister, whom they interviewed the following day.
‘Felt someone staring’
Just then, the report states, the pickup drove past her once but made a U-turn at nearby McWilliams Avenue. From his car window, Hooten told the girl three times to get in his truck, according to the report.
“Did I cat call? Yes, I yelled out the window,” he told detectives. “I thought she might have been a hooker, I’m not going to lie, and yelled out the window, ‘You working? You want a ride?’”
He would later admit in his interview with detectives to “frequenting the area of Bonanza and MLK to visit prostitutes,” the report states.
But the teen walked away and called her sister, who told her to hide at the Chevron gas station on the corner of the intersection, where she would pick her up.
Hooten followed her, according to the report.
The teen stayed at the front of the store, near the register, as Hooten entered the gas station. He went straight to an ATM, the report states, and withdrew money — in case the teen was interested, he told detectives.
When the teen’s sister arrived at the gas station seconds later, she took photos of Hooten’s truck, the same pictures detectives would later use to link the retired officer to the crime.
At the end of the interview, the victim picked Hooten out of a photo lineup, the report states.
His preliminary hearing has been set for Jan. 13 in Justice Court, during which a judge will decide whether prosecutors have enough evidence to present the case to a jury.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.