Las Vegas Criminal Defense Blog

Last week a 43-year-old woman was arrested after allegedly kidnapping a 9-year-old boy who was riding his scooter on a Reno Street. After neighbors reported the boy's screaming from the woman's apartment, she was booked at the Washoe County Jail and will likely be charged with kidnapping, burglary, and violating Nevada child abuse laws. The boy is reportedly fine.

Nevada child abuse laws make it a crime to willfully cause or permit a child to undergo physical, emotional, or sexual abuse or to abandon or neglect them. Allegations of child abuse are usually investigated by Child Protective Services, who notify law enforcement if they believe abuse has occurred. A person cannot be convicted of child abuse if they did not intend to cause or let the abuse happen.

The penalties for violating Nevada child abuse laws turn on a variety of factors, including whether the abuse was willful, whether substantial harm occurred, the child's age, whether the accused is a repeat offender, and whether the harm was sexual. Depending on the facts of the case, child abuse can be punished as anything from a gross misdemeanor with up to a year in jail to a serious felony carrying life in prison. Convictions for child abuse can never be sealed from criminal records.

For more on this story, go to: http://www.rgj.com/article/20100428/NEWS01/100428031/1321/news.

Last week, Las Vegas police arrested a twenty-one-year old dad for allegedly violating Nevada child abuse law on his infant son. The three-month-old was rushed to a medical center in critical condition with injuries police say are consistent with blunt-force trauma to his abdomen and bite marks. The dad was booked into the CCDC on eight counts of breaking Nevada child abuse law with substantial bodily harm and other charges.

Nevada child abuse law makes it a crime to willfully cause or allow a child to endure unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering. Anyone convicted of willfully abusing a child with substantial bodily injury or mental harm faces two to twenty years in prison. If the child was less than fourteen and the alleged abuse was sexual in nature, the sentence increases to life with the possibility of parole after fifteen years.

If someone is accused of willfully abusing a child without substantial or mental harm in Nevada, the possible penalties depend on if the citizen accused has any previous child abuse convictions. If so, the sentence range is two to fifteen years, but if not, the sentence may be only one to six years. In cases of neglect or endangerment, penalties may be as little as one year to as much as life depending on the age of the child, the nature of the abuse, whether substantial bodily or mental harm occurred, and whether the accused has past convictions.

Read more about this story at http://www.lvrj.com/news/father-accused-of-beating-3-month-old-boy-85145712.html

The Exchange Club of Mesquite, Nevada, which advocates for the prevention and enforcement of Nevada child abuse, neglect and endangerment laws, is holding the Mesquite Madness IX Charity Action on March 13 at Casa Blanca. Auctioneer David Pierson will orchestrate the event, and funds raised will go towards preventing child abuse and neglect.

Nevada child abuse, neglect and endangerment laws make it a crime to purposely cause or permit a child to endure unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering. Child abuse, neglect and endangerment also includes sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, excessive corporeal punishment and lack of supervision.

Continue reading "Mesquite's Exchange Club to Hold Benefit to Prevent Child Abuse" »

A couple in Carson City was arrested last week after they allegedly locked a five-year old boy and a three-year old boy in a boarded-up bedroom for an extended period. The five-year old had black eyes and the three-year old had an infected wound on his face. The boys are now in protective custody.

The couple was charged with felony child abuse with substantial bodily harm, false imprisonment, and with breaking Nevada child neglect, abuse and endangerment laws (NRS 200.508). Child abuse occurs when a person causes someone under eighteen to endure unjustifiable physical or mental pain.

Continue reading "Carson City Couple Arrested for Child Abuse" »

Last week police arrested nineteen-year-old Matthew Andrews for sexual assault in Las Vegas after he allegedly molested children at his mother's day care facility. Currently, Andrews is charged with the sexual assault in Las Vegas of three children. Police are now asking all parents who left their children there to question them to see if they were possible victims.

Holly Andrews, the mother of the suspect, has not been charged at this time. Police claim there's currently no indication that she knew of her son's alleged behavior.

Police are also urging all parents who use day care facilities to take precautions, such as dropping in unexpectedly once in a while to see what's going on there as well as to talk to their children about what they do there.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration identified Nevada as one of ten states that showed an increase in the number of fatal DUI crashes last year where the driver was a woman. Nationwide, there was a 4.6% increase in the number of females arrested for driving under the influence between 2003 and 2007.

Even though females still make up less than twenty percent of drivers arrested for DUI in Nevada, resulting accidents therefore are usually more dangerous because women drivers tend to have more passengers, such as children: NHTSA reports that thirty-five percent of all alcohol-impaired female drivers have passengers.

Continue reading "Nevada Singled Out for Increase in Fatal DUI Accidents Where Driver was Female" »

Last month in Chavez v. State, the Nevada Supreme Court clarified its position on the 2004 U.S. Supreme Court case Crawford v. Washington, which held that the Sixth Amendment confrontation clause bars “admission of testimonial statements of a witness who did not appear at trial unless he was unavailable to testify, and the defendant had had a prior opportunity for cross-examination.”

In Chavez, the defendant Chavez was charged with sexual assault on a minor in Nevada for allegedly having sexual relations with his daughter, D.C. D.C. had testified at the preliminary hearing, during which Chavez subjected her to extensive cross-examination. However, D.C. passed away before she could appear at Chavez’s actual trial, so the judge, in accordance with Crawford, allowed D.C.’s preliminary hearing testimony to come in as evidence.

After Chavez was convicted of sexual assault on a minor in Nevada, he appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court on several grounds, including the Sixth Amendment. In affirming the verdict, the Nevada Supreme Court explained that preliminary hearing testimony can “afford a defendant an opportunity for effective cross-examination.” However, whether the preliminary hearing actually does provide that opportunity is something the Court will determine on a case-by-case basis. In Chavez, the breadth of D.C.’s testimony and Chavez’s cross-examination and the fact discovery was nearly complete by the preliminary hearing rendered her testimony admissible in line with Crawford and the Confrontation Clause.

Alex Kopystenski has been charged with one count of felony child endangerment in Las Vegas this week after his five-year-old son Giovanni accidentally shot himself in the head with Kopystenski’s gun.

On Monday, father and son (and a friend of the father’s) drove to a Walgreens to fill a prescription. While they were at the drive-thru window, Giovanni took his father's gun, which was allegedly on the front seat's center console, and pulled the trigger. Kopystenski and his friend rushed Giovanni to Spring Valley Hospital, where he died early Tuesday morning.

Kopystenski was booked at Clark County Detention Center, where he was released on $3,000 bail. Child endangerment in Las Vegas can be a category B felony, carrying two to twenty years in state prison.