Judge raises bail in suspended Metro sergeant’s case

A judge raised a suspended Metropolitan Police Department sergeant’s bail to $150,000 in a hearing Wednesday morning.

Sgt. Kevin Menon is accused of illegally detaining people on the Las Vegas Strip and, in a separate case, possessing child sexual abuse material. In the latter case, a grand jury also indicted Menon Wednesday on two counts of possession of visual presentation depicting sexual conduct of a child, court records show.

District Court Judge Ronald Israel, presiding over the case involving allegations that Menon unlawfully detained people, said that Menon posed a danger to the community.

Menon had already posted bail in two cases: $27,000 in relation to charges including oppression and battery, and $100,000 in relation to possession of child sexual abuse material charges. He was not in custody when he appeared in court Wednesday.

Prosecutors began Wednesday’s hearing by requesting that Menon’s bail be revoked entirely, arguing that two new devices found with child sexual abuse material on them should constitute a new felony charge.

Since Menon has been out on bail, Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Portz said that a total of 583 images of child sexual abuse material were discovered on his devices.

Menon pleaded not guilty to oppression and battery charges, among others, during Wednesday’s hearing. His wife, Natasha Menon, started crying when Israel announced the bail increase. Dominic Gentile, Kevin Menon’s attorney, said in court that he intends to post bail.

Gentile, leaving the courtroom with Menon and his wife, said that both he and the couple declined to comment.

In a phone call Wednesday evening, Gentile said Israel gave Menon 24 hours to post bail, which he will do tomorrow. Gentile said Menon will not be taken back into custody.

‘Clearly false,’ judge says

Israel said that Menon’s representations in a statement submitted to the court were “clearly false,” which he said weighed in favor of increasing bail.

Menon wrote and submitted a character statement in a motion filed Friday in support of an argument that he “is an upstanding person in the community,” a factor weighing in favor of low bail.

In the statement, Menon wrote that after graduating high school he transferred from a community college in New York City to Harvard University.

Menon wrote that during his senior year, he was “guaranteed admission” to Harvard Medical School but never attended, leaving school to care for his mother after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

In a motion filed Monday, prosecutors wrote Harvard University had said it had “found no records to indicate that Mr. Menon was admitted to Harvard College or the Harvard Medical School,” adding that a transcript found on Menon’s computer appeared to be fraudulent.

Gentile said in court that someone had told Menon he would be guaranteed admission to the medical school. “The problem is that the only witness that I have, who gave the guarantee, is dead,” Gentile said. This person was not identified in court, and Gentile said the guarantee was never made in writing.

‘Targeting people of color’

While a statement from Menon’s family shared with the Review-Journal Monday said that Menon had previously “confronted flagrant racism and abuses of power” within Metro, a prosecutor accused Menon of “targeting people of color.”

“The bottom line is, Kevin Menon, in this case, did something really egregious,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Hamner of the case involving the allegations of detaining people unlawfully. “When he wore the badge in your case, he was targeting people of color.”

The statement from Menon’s family said Menon has been painted “as a thug, as a liar, and now as a pervert,” adding, “for any person of color, we instantly recognize the naked lies, misrepresentations and tired stereotypes used to try and justify racist bigotry.”