By MES Dispatch staff
The Briefing
• A Las Vegas man was re-arrested for the 36th time after officers took him into custody on new allegations following a judge’s order for pretrial release over law enforcement objections.
• Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department declined to release him into the electronic monitoring program, saying he posed an unreasonable public safety risk.
• The repeat offender has a long criminal history that includes previous arrests, fleeing police and an involuntary manslaughter conviction, authorities said.
• A motion in the prior case could hold Metro in contempt for not complying with the release order; the dispute highlights ongoing legal questions about pretrial custody.
LAS VEGAS, NV — A Las Vegas man with an extensive criminal history was re-arrested March 18 on new allegations after a local judge ordered his pretrial release over objections from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Joshua Sanchez-Lopez, 36, was taken back into custody a day before a scheduled hearing in a prior grand larceny of a motor vehicle case, police said. Officers responded to a call reporting a man going through mailboxes at an apartment complex and located Sanchez-Lopez nearby.
Metro Police also said detectives found what appeared to be a fraud lab and narcotics at his residence during the subsequent investigation of the new allegations.
Sanchez-Lopez has previously been arrested more than 35 times and has a history of fleeing from law enforcement, once pointing a firearm at an officer and a conviction for involuntary manslaughter in Nye County, authorities said.
Metro declined to release Sanchez-Lopez into its electronic monitoring pretrial program despite a judge’s order, arguing the department has statutory authority to determine whether monitoring poses unreasonable public safety risks. A motion in the earlier case is advancing that could find the department in contempt of court for not complying with the release mandate.