MORE Bad Press ...... same guy AGAIN

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6128520

Mark Sayre, Investigative Reporter
I-Team: Renegade 'Bounty Hunters' Injure Local Man

Feb 23, 2007 07:04 PM EST


"I just can't believe a law would allow anybody to come in your home like that," said Steve Brereton.



Imagine people coming into your home in the middle of the night and spraying mace at you. It happened to one local man. He called police looking for help only to find out that no law had been broken.

What happened is the result of how Nevada's laws pertain to bounty hunters.

The terror inside the home is revealed on 911 tapes of the incident obtained exclusively by the Eyewitness News I-Team. Steve Brereton first calls 911 just after 11 p.m. on Jan. 4th from his home near Sahara and Nellis.

Read more on NRS 697.325, the Nevada law that allows the bounty hunters to forcibly enter a home.

911 call transcript:
Steve Brereton: This is Steve Brereton. I need Metro here…pronto.
Metro 911: What is the emergency?
Steve Brereton: I have some... 3 a******* who broke into my house.

When Steve Brereton called 911 he had no idea what was happening inside his home.

911 call transcript:
Metro 911: Do you know what color clothes they have on.
Steve Brereton: Yeah, all black.
Metro 911: Do you see weapons?
Steve Brereton: Yeah, I see them.
Metro 911: What do they have?
Steve Brereton: One clown right here put his 9 millimeter against my chest!

Brereton had been upstairs in bed with his 7-year-old granddaughter nearby. His sister-in-law heard a knock and cracked open the front door.

“By the time I come down the stairs they were in my house right here," said Brereton. At the door was local bail enforcement agent or “bounty hunter” Rob Suckoll and his associates.

You may remember Suckoll from his high-profile arrest in 2005 in El Salvador. He spent two months in jail -- accused of violating immigration laws while trying to bring a man back to Las Vegas. Today Suckoll owns Budget Bail Bonds.

Suckoll was inside the home looking for Richard Brereton, who is a client who had skipped bail. Steve Brereton is Richard's father. “They were asking about Richard. Richard doesn't live here,” Steve Brereton said.

(Rob Suckoll agreed to respond to Eyewitness News after he saw this story. Click here for his side of the story)

Under Nevada law bounty hunters are legally able to make forced entry into any home to arrest a client (NRS 697.325). The only requirement is that they must call police in advance and notify them of the address.

In this case, Brereton's call to 911 connected 43 seconds after 11 p.m.

911 call transcript:
Metro 911 computer: 23 hours, Zero minutes, 43 seconds.
Steve Brereton: Yes, this is Steve Brereton.

The notification call from the bounty hunter connected one second earlier, the bail agent is giggling as she tries to explain the name of the street is Sesame.

Metro non-emergency call:

Call transcript:
Metro 911 computer: 23 hours, zero minutes, 42 seconds.
Metro: Metro police, Officer Spencer.
Bail Agent: Hi this is Brenda with Budget Bail Bonds.
Metro: Yeah?
Bail Agent: We are attempting an arrest at 2*** Sesame Drive.
Metro: I'm sorry…2***, what?
Bail Agent: Sesame Drive.
Metro: Stephanie?
Bail Agent: Sesame, like Sesame Street.

Simultaneously, on the 911 line, the chaos inside Brereton's home is being recorded. Brereton and the bail agents are exchanging words.

911 call transcript:
Steve Brereton: You come down in my house and you got me upstairs when I was sleepin'
Bail Agent: We are not leaving until…
Steve Brereton: Yeah, right, you are not leaving until Metro gets here.
Bail Agent: That's fine.
Steve Brereton: Hey, Metro get over here or I am going to kick somebody's a**!

Brereton then calls 911 a second time nine minutes later.

911 call transcript:
Metro 911: Steve, I have that officers are en route. What's going on? Has anything changed or escalated since you called us?
Steve Brereton: Yeah, they just sprayed my granddaughter and I with mace.

Brereton then requested -- and Metro dispatched -- a Medicwest ambulance. The incident report shows "3 people maced." The bounty hunters told police the mace was self-defense because they thought Brereton was going to get a gun. He denies has ever had any weapons in the house.

“When bail enforcement agents behave out of control there needs to be regulation to stop that,” said Allen Lichtenstein, attorney for the Nevada American Civil Liberties Union.

Lichtenstein says innocent people are caught up in bounty hunter cases all too often. “No contract gives a bail enforcement agent the right to mace somebody or to use force against a third party,” Lichtenstein said.

Metro police left Brereton's home without so much as taking a report. A department spokesman says no laws were broken so no report was necessary. Brereton was only able to file a "voluntary statement" on the incident by going to a Metro substation.

Lichtenstein disagrees with police. “The idea that they would not take a report is absolutely outrageous,” he said. Metro declined an on-camera interview about this incident.

Rob Suckoll also declined an on-camera interview. Suckoll told the I-Team by phone he would not comment on the advice of his attorney. Suckoll’s attorney also did not return a call.

Steve Brereton is still in disbelief about what happened that night. "I just can't believe a law would allow anybody to come in your home like that," Brereton said.

According to a report by the "American Bail Coalition" -- bounty hunting is outlawed in seven states including Illinois, Florida and Oregon. Eleven states -- including Nevada -- require a license. To get that license in Nevada bounty hunters must go through a background check and 80 hours of training.

Email your comments to Investigative Reporter Mark Sayre.

Is this the same guy that his partner alledgedly hired a hit man to take out of business?
Or did I get the two reversed?
Keep watch on this one so that we can be updated.

_________________


Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

Yeah, this is the same person, LuVonda. I'm sure there are many more details of all the situations that nobody is aware of outside the main players.

This can be good or bad, depending on how the various infractions are ruled.

_________________
Kathy Blackshear
Blackshear Investigations
Blackshear Bail Bonds
Sales Associate, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.
Walsenburg, CO

Proud Member of the AB Reject Club

I-Team: Second 'Bystander' Falls Victim in Bounty Hunter Case

Feb 24, 2007 12:05 AM CST



Bounty Hunter Responds to Accusations
I-Team: Renegade 'Bounty Hunters' Injure Local Man
Nevada Law NRS 697.325: Allows bounty hunters to forcibly enter a home.


They are officially called bail enforcement agents, but many call them "bounty hunters." The Channel 8 I-Team has learned of two local incidents where bystanders -- people not wanted by the bounty hunters -- have been injured as the bounty hunters looked for clients who have skipped bail.

Nevada law allows bounty hunters to make forcible entry to get their client as long as police are notified in advance.

Art Diaz, a maintenance man at the Green Door nightclub, says it all happened very fast when "bounty hunters" burst in on Jan. 25th, 2007.

"When I told them to take it out of the club the guy with the shotgun raised it and told me to back up. I told him to wise up and he shot me," Diaz told the I-Team. "I don't remember hearing a sound or anything," Diaz said. "All I saw was a little white thing coming at me and I went down."

Diaz was shot by what's commonly called a "beanbag" gun. Photos taken at the time show what appears to be a severe bruise right below Diaz’ chest bone. Diaz says the round was debilitating and sent him crashing to the floor. "It felt like something went inside and... I just went down. After that I was just in pain," he said.

One of those in the room that night was bail agent Rob Suckoll. You may remember Suckoll from a high-profile arrest in 2005 in El Salvador while on an international bounty hunting mission.

Green Door bartender Sylvia Quenneville says the club had agreed to help Suckoll get his man, but that's not how things unfolded. "All I saw was Rob, another gentleman, a gun, two women. They are going through. And I am thinking, what is this, a SWAT team? What's going on here?" Quenneville said.

The TV show Dog The Bounty Hunter is glamorizing the bounty hunting industry. But veteran bail agent Rich Hunt said, "I don't feel I am a bounty hunter."

Hunt says the strong-arm tactics depicted in the TV show do not portray reality. "I've done this since 1972. I've made close to 3,000 felony arrests. I have had two fights and I pulled my weapon out of the holster one time," Hunt said.

Hunt points to contracts and a power of attorney, which gives him the legal right to bring in his fugitive clients. "You don't have to go in with guns drawn, you don't have to terrify kids. You don't have to terrify people," he continued.

Art Diaz has hired attorney Conrad Claus. "Now they had already violated their agreement when you've got armed people obviously showing firearms marching through a public area and into a private area. That constitutes trespass, it constitutes burglary," Claus said.

Sylvia Guenneville says there's no doubt in her mind someone could have been killed. "I'm amazed that they are in business. I am amazed that they have the right to do this," she added.

Art Diaz still has a scar from that night and he hopes he will never get caught up in another bounty hunting case. "I still have a little bit of pain but it’s only when I cough," he explained.

Rob Suckoll initially denied the I-Team's request for an interview, but after the first story was broadcast Suckoll decided to come forward. He told the I-Team the man he ultimately arrested at the Green Door had a long criminal record so the hard-line tactics were necessary. He said Art Diaz was viewed as a threat.

"I look back and I see who turns out to be the maintenance man coming up on my backside and he is just a couple of feet away from my backside," Suckoll said. "At that time my agent had to do what was appropriate -- stop the gentlemen -- because he has no clue what his intentions were."

Police were not called to the Green Door. No charges were filed in this case.

Email your comments to Investigative Reporter Mark Sayre.

_________________


Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

If this s*&% keeps up, we will all be out of business.

Tony, sounds like y'all should have taught these guys some manners while you were in LV.

_________________
Kathy Blackshear
Blackshear Investigations
Blackshear Bail Bonds
Sales Associate, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.
Walsenburg, CO

Proud Member of the AB Reject Club

Kathy, too bad us girls weren't there, we could have showed them how to have manners and the boys could have been our backup.

_________________


Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

If you 2 were there, I would have had you take care of "Beth!"

Yeah, she's probably their role model.

I'm just wondering how these idiots passed the psych eval that NV requires.

_________________
Kathy Blackshear
Blackshear Investigations
Blackshear Bail Bonds
Sales Associate, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.
Walsenburg, CO

Proud Member of the AB Reject Club

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6134643

Mark Sayre, Investigator Reporter
Bounty Hunter Responds to Accusations

Feb 23, 2007 06:39 PM EST

A local bounty hunter is defending his actions after an I-Team investigation. He says neither he nor his employees did anything wrong when they entered a private home prompting multiple calls to 911.

The bounty hunter at the center of this story agreed to speak with Eyewitness News.

Rob Suckoll is not only defending his actions in this case. He also says the bail industry serves an important public service by helping to free up jail space which saves taxpayers money.

"I have some... 3 a******* who broke into my house." That's what Steve Brereton said to a 911 dispatcher when he placed a panicked 911 call after he was awakened by three bounty hunters standing in his living room at 11 p.m.

911 call transcript
Metro 911: Do you see weapons?
Steve Brereton: Yeah I see them.
Metro 911: What do they have?
Steve Brereton: One clown right here put his 9 millimeter against my chest.

Rob Suckoll says he was invited into the home by a relative. "Come on in," is what Rob Suckoll says he was told. He is the owner of Budget Bail Bonds. He was inside the home near Sahara and Nellis looking for Richard Brereton, Steve Brereton's son.

Suckoll defends the use of mace -- and the brandishing of guns -- on Steve Brereton. "During that time he jumped up off the couch, he grabbed an item off of a table which appeared to be brick, and he came at my female agent with it -- raised it up -- and that's at the time when she pepper-sprayed him," Suckoll said.

Nevada law specifically allows bounty hunters to forcibly enter private residences as long as they notify police first. Suckoll says since he was "invited" in, no police notification was necessary. But one of his employees called Metro anyway.

Suckoll says he only has one regret about how he handled Steve Brereton.

"The only thing that we should have done differently is he should have been handcuffed immediately upon apprehension upstairs. That would have saved everybody from the whole pepper spraying incident," Suckoll said.

Suckoll does not feel that he owes anyone an apology because he says he was doing his job searching for a fugitive.

"I just can't believe a law would allow anybody to come in your home like that," Brereton said.

Metro did respond to this incident. But officers at the scene determined that no laws had been broken so no report was taken and no charges were filed.

Adrian Arambulo, Reporter
Las Vegas Bounty Hunters in El Salvador Jail

All of this started after a sexual assault suspect.. Used a bail bonds company to gain freedom. The Three local men who tried to bring an accused sex offender to justice are now behind bars in El Salvador.
More>>

Adrian Arambulo, Reporter
Las Vegas Bounty Hunters in El Salvador Jail

Oct 28, 2005 05:44 PM EDT

Cesar Nerio
Robert Suckoll, Erick Lippinoctt, and Mark Pretuer are under arrest in El Salvador
Three local men who tried to bring an accused sex offender to justice are now behind bars in El Salvador.
Robert Suckoll, Erick Lippinoctt, and Mark Pretuer were arrested after trying to take suspect, Julio Cesar Nerio out of El Salvador.
The three were hired by Dirty Deeds, a local bail bonds company to bring Nerio back to the United States. They could now face more than three years in an El Salvadoran prison for interfearing with the suspect's liberty.
Nerio meanitme remains free.
All of this started after Nerio, a sexual assault suspect, used the bail bonds company to gain freedom. Nerio then left the country sparking the bounty hunters to go after him.
"He's accused of sexual assault of a child in North Las Vegas," said Tim Bedwell, North Las Vegas police.

Timothy dean said, it shouldn't of happened like this." Timothy dean is the president of dirty deeds bail bonds. He says he worked closely with the u-s state department, and local el salvador police, for months to get nerio. Dean: we thought we were good to go... Simple.

Dean says salvadorian police arrested nerio and turned him over to his men. But once the americans tried taking nerio out of the country without a passport... They were arrested for restraining nerio's liberty.

Benavides: if they're found guilty, the penalty is between 3 and 6 years. Oscar benavides is the las vegas consul general for el salvador. He says in his 20 plus years of service, he has never heard of civilans going into el salvador to take a fugitive away. Benavides: the justice system says that's not correct that's not right to do that

dean says what's not right is the way his employees are being treated in jail. Dean: kept them in cuffs all night... Tried to feed them toilet water.

In fact he thinks they shouldn't be in jail at all. Dean: i take most of the blame, all of the blame i sent the three down there, they're my friends.

It is not clear what happens next. Dean says he's trying to work out a plea agreement with the el salvador government. The consulate says the three americans may be headed to trial. The suspect, nerio, remains free in his home country.

Benavides says there's no extradition treaty between the us and el salvador... It's a long and complicated process... So even if nerio is captured... There's no telling if or when he might be back in nevada to face sexual assault charges.