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June Hearing

On Thursday June 28th at 7:30 AM, Kenneth Lopera, the LVMPD Officer who murdered Tashii Brown on Mother’s Day last year will be in court yet again. Ostensibly this hearing will be to announce the results from the grand jury that has been “reviewing” an involuntary manslaughter and “oppression under the color of law” indictment that was filed against Lopera in October. Those charges resulted from the deadly beating, tasing, and choking of Brown by Officer Lopera on May 14th 2017.

However, this marks the fourth time such a hearing has been held since March. In each of the three previous court dates, instead of announcing some sort of decision from the grand jury the can has been kicked a little further down the road and postponed to the next month. The fact that Sheriff Joe Lombardo was in the middle of running for re-election has led some to speculate that the case is being delayed to avoid attention during his campaign.

Note: If you have videos, stories, upcoming events/protests, or personal interactions with the police (and/or “justice” system) that you would like to share, send them to us and we will do everything we can to bring it to the attention of the world. In addition, you can visit the Nevada Cop Block resources section for information and links to the rights of citizens when dealing with police, during which you should always be filming.

“Reviewing” the Charges or Just Sweeping Them Under the Rug?

Of course, there has also been other potential reasons ascribed to the continuous delays and even the involvement of a grand jury itself. As has been detailed previously here at NVCopBlock.org, in cases involving police officers and other government officials grand juries are most often used to absolve them of responsibility for the crimes they have committed. The secretive nature of a grand jury allows the district attorney to throw the case and ensure no indictment results. And since no-one, including the members of the grand jury, can discuss what went on during the grand jury hearing nobody can dispute their subsequent claims that they gave it the old college try, but the case wasn’t strong enough to justify charges.

I and many others who have followed this case strongly suspect that this will be yet another case of police violence where the grand jury “refuses” to indict the officer who committed that act of violence. The continuous stalling tactics could simply be an attempt to draw it out as long as possible and hope the public forgets about Lopera’s actions that day. Of course, it could have also been to ensure that such egregious charges weren’t dropped against a Metro officer right before the sheriff’s election.

Now that the election is over, it’ll be very interesting to see if the delays continue or if Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has gotten the go ahead to announce that the charges have been dropped. Not surprisingly, the “Good Cops” within the LVMPD have already shown pretty clearly where they stand in regard to Lopera’s murderous actions.

Thursday’s Hearing Details:

Case Number: 17F10146X

17F10146X Location: Regional (in)Justice Center – Courtroom 7A (200 Lewis Avenue)

Regional (in)Justice Center – Courtroom 7A (200 Lewis Avenue) Date/Time: 06/28/2018 – 7:30 AM

The hearing is open to the public and you have every right to attend.

Body Camera Footage of the Murder of Tashii Brown by LVMPD Officer Kenneth Lopera

Support Tashii Brown’s Mother

Incidentally, like all the other families of the victims of police violence Tashii Brown’s mother, Trinita Farmer, has been struggling both emotionally and financially in the year since he was murdered. In order to help alleviate some of that financial burden Ramsey Denison, the director of “What Happened in Vegas” in which Tashii Brown’s case is featured, has set up a GoFundMe account to collect donations on her behalf. In the description included within that fundraiser (www.gofundme.com/tashii-brown039s-mom), Denison states:

On Mother’s Day 2017, Officer Kenneth Lopera killed aspiring clothing designer Tashii Brown in one of the most outrageous and unjustified killings in the LVMPD’s disgraceful history. Even the LVMPD admitted the killing was unjustified and fired Lopera and charged him with manslaughter, but that didn’t stop dirtbag police union president Steve Grammas from raising over $44,000 for Lopera, essentially rewarding him for committing murder, while Tashii’s mother Trinita was left heartbroken and destitute and struggled to come up with the funds to bury her son. At the recent 1 year Mother’s Day anniversary of Tashii’s death, I could see that Trinita is still struggling financially and wanted to do something to help her. While no amount of money will bring her son Tashii back, funds can make her day to day life easier so I am setting up a GoFundMe for Trinita Farmer. All funds will go directly to her. I will start things off with a $100 donation and encourage you all to give what you can. Every little bit helps.

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