A hearing intended to determine whether a judge should be disqualified from overseeing an embattled police sergeant’s case ended without a decision Monday.
Suspended Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Kevin Menon, 43, faces criminal charges in three separate cases. Prosecutors have accused him of illegally detaining people on the Strip, possessing hundreds of sexual images of young girls and installing cameras in bathroom vents that captured videos showing the genitalia and buttocks of his wife and sister-in-law.
Menon’s attorneys filed a motion in March seeking to remove District Judge Ronald Israel from hearing the Strip detentions case, arguing that Israel’s daughter has accused him of abuse, which would make him subject to investigation by Metro and could lead him to avoid rulings unfavorable to police.
Metro has said it is not investigating the judge. Israel said in an affidavit he was “unaware of any facts that would even remotely create any bias.”
District Judge Mark Denton delayed the hearing on Israel after a lawyer for Metro, Matthew Christian, said he wanted to quash a subpoena served on the lieutenant of the department’s criminal intelligence section by defense attorney Dominic Gentile.
“I can have him here, but to me, it’s unduly burdensome,” Christian said.
Defense attorney Dominic Gentile requested an evidentiary hearing and said he intended to call the Metro lieutenant as one of his witnesses. He estimated the hearing would take about 30 minutes.
Denton scheduled an evidentiary hearing for April 22 and said he would also hear Christian’s motion to quash then. The lieutenant must come to court, he said.
The hearing was assigned to Denton after Chief Judge Jerry Wiese, who was supposed to hear the motion to disqualify under state law, said that he had a “longstanding personal and professional relationship with Judge Israel” and did not think he was the “appropriate judge.”
Menon is also scheduled for a bail hearing Monday afternoon in the bathroom videos case.
Prosecutors want District Judge Mary Kay Holthus to increase his bail to $1 million.
The sergeant’s wife, Natasha Menon, and sister-in-law, Tamara Russell, have said the videos were consensual.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.