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Las Vegas officer indicted on weapons charge
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Thomas Mendiola
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
A Las Vegas police officer involved in a fatal shooting outside the Summerlin Costco last year has been indicted on a felony weapons charge in a separate incident.
The indictment returned Friday charges officer Thomas Mendiola with disposal of a firearm to a prohibited person. He is accused of giving a handgun to a two-time felon.
Mendiola, 23, an employee of the Metropolitan Police Department since March 2009, has been relieved of his patrol duties at the Convention Center Area Command .
Mendiola gave a .22-caliber Ruger handgun to Robert Justice, who has two theft convictions in Arizona, sometime between July 15 and Aug. 19, according to a criminal complaint.
Justice, 45, has been charged and is cooperating with police in an unrelated case involving what police say was a plot to kill Las Vegas attorney Nancy Quon.
In September, a coroner's inquest found that Mendiola and two other officers were justified in shooting Eric Scott outside the Costco store, but Scott's family has sued the officers and the department in federal court.
If convicted of the weapons charges, Mendiola could face one to 10 years in prison and a maximum $10,000 fine.
An arraignment is set for May 26. Mendiola remained free on his own recognizance.
Police said they learned about the relationship between Justice and Mendiola during an undercover investigation that targeted Justice in the summer.
Justice ended up selling the Ruger handgun and a Dan Wesson .357-caliber revolver to an undercover detective on Sept. 14 for $500, police said. Neither firearm was registered with authorities in Clark County.
Justice told detectives that Mendiola gave him the .22-caliber handgun as a gift after Justice performed some mechanical work on the officer's car.
Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.
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10 years in jail for giving a gun away as a gift- Stupid
Killing a innocent man- nothing
KARMA- Priceless
@PLBright..."they need to respect the law AND the uniform"...respect works both ways, just because a person has anything doesn't mean I have to respect them period if in return I am not respected. Your comments are funny though.
Webmaster: My posts of 24 hours ago are not posted. The web filter policy is simply not working nor is it acceptable. Fix the problem, or the LVRJ just will be encouraged to look for a new webmaster. We have had these problems for years, the problems need to come to an end.
I hope Mendiola does go to prison for ten years! He deserves it. Why would he display such poor judgement in "giving" a gun to Robert Justice, a felon?
Maybe it will be an appropriate "payback" for Mendiola's murder of Eric Scott in the Costco parking lot!
PLBRIGHT... Go home, take your meds and calm down before you kill someone. If I was confronted by cops, and one said "get on the Ground" and at the same same time another said "put it down" when there was no gun in my hand, trust me, I would look confused to. You young punks who call yourself officers, are a murderous joke on society.
@Jerry S..Dickinson .... I'm NOT placing blame on COSTCO. Merely noted that Scott's parents dropped them from the lawsuit. There is only one really guilty party here, the others are merely at fault for being there. Scott should NOT have been carrying the weapon ANYWHERE. Please re-read what I wrote because you and I are both on the same page. Sorry for any misunderstandings in what I wrote. I think its a shame what people here say most of the time. It makes me sick to my stomach. Until people are in the uniform, or even just in the same situation, they should keep their mouths shut. Until they know what it is like to have a millisecond to decide if you are going to go home to your family that day, or are you going to take a chance... They need to respect the law AND the uniform. I'm not saying there are not bad cops, there are. But the Erik Scott situation should not be brought into this. It IS sad he died, but he walked that road. Costco branched it out. Metro closed it. But ultimately Erik Scott was in the wrong, no matter what anyone says, because he was BREAKING THE LAW BY CARRYING A CONCEALED WEAPON WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF DRUGS. PERIOD. NO ONE, not Costco, not Metro, NO ONE, should be being sued.
How and when did Mendiola befriend Justice, or better question, how did Justice happen to meet and befriend Mendiola? According to the RJ, Mendiola knew Justice for just one month before deciding to gift him with an unregistered firearm in exchange for Justice working on Mendiola's car (twice). Either Mendiola is a very trusting young man, or he was set up. This is the same Justice who is the KEY witness in the Nancy Quon/William Webb (another Metro officer whom Justice befriended) suicide/arson/extortion/HOA case. A note to all Metro officers: Justice is not blind--nor, is he your new BFF.
All these anti-gunner's are a more recent addition to this once decent city. Why don't you all go back to California where they don't believe in the constitution or most certainly the 2nd amendment?
LVMPD is a complete cesspool. I have witnessed firsthand how easily their officers and the sheriff complete disregard one's civil liberties. Unless you have a boatload of money to fight them in court then it just goes unchecked, like all the officer-involved shootings...
Wake up Vegas, it's time to restore the constitution. Many lives were and still are sacrificed for our freedoms. The least you can do is show a little appreciation or move somewhere that agrees with your backwards thinking. By the way I am a Vegas valley native so I know what it was like before all this garbage and I have a right to say.
Jerry S..Dickinson wrote: “Do you realize how ridiculous it sounds to say "..proof of state sanctioned murder..."”. I do wish that the very thought was ridiculous, but this thought is not ridiculous, but true. The combination of laws that exempt an officer while acting under color from being prosecuted for murder, aggressive police tactics and training, police officers who refuse to police their own, and a District Attorney that simply ignores incompetent cold blooded murder have all come together to make the statement, “State Sanctioned Murder”, true in the United States today. Today, a person can and will be murdered for nothing else than the suspicion of being a threat to a police officer. That is a fact that cannot be ignored. And, the Nuremberg defense that I was only following orders and my training in a killing simply does not wash with me, and many other citizens of this country.
Guns for auto repairs. Fiction can't come close to Las Vegas true stories.