LVMPD sergeant under investigation for arrest tactics now faces charges for child sex abuse material

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department sergeant under investigation for his arrest tactics now faces new charges for the possession of child sexual abuse material.

Channel 13's Jaewon Jung was in the courtroom where Sgt. Kevin Menon was expected to appear Wednesday morning on his indictment on oppression, subornation of perjury and battery charges.

The hearing was abruptly reset after the judge confirmed Menon could not be present due to "unforeseen circumstances."

But Metro confirmed Menon was arrested on the new charges before the hearing took place. Menon now faces two counts of possession of visual presentation depicting sexual conduct of person under 16 years of age, according to police.

Menon was previously indicted by a Clark County grand jury on charges related to abuse of police powers, including oppression, subornation of perjury and battery on a protected person. He's accused of orchestrating arrests while working as a plainclothes officer on the Las Vegas Strip.

Body-worn camera footage obtained by Channel 13 showed the alleged illegal arrests for which Menon is under investigation. In the videos we reviewed, several individuals express confusion about their arrests, including one who said he was being "set up" and another who alleged he was being arrested on "false pretenses."

The Metro sergeant was scheduled to appear in court at 10 a.m. when criminal defense attorney Dominic Gentile told the court he'd been arrested.

When asked about Menon's arrest, Gentile told Channel 13 he had no comment.

Channel 13 went to Menon's home in North Las Vegas. When our crew arrived, more than a dozen undercover officers were on the scene.

For hours, police converged on Menon's home and appeared to be searching it. Police would not confirm to Channel 13 if a warrant was being served.

Menon's wife could also be seen picking up her dog and leaving the home, appearing emotional.

Channel 13 obtained the new arrest report for Sgt. Kevin Menon Wednesday afternoon. It states detectives served a search warrant on Aug. 30 as part of the first investigation when they came across sexual images of young girls on two of his devices.

Five laptops were seized and authorities have only been able to extract data from two of them. Investigators located numerous images of girls believed to be under the age of 16 with their bodies exposed.

On one MacBook, investigators found 18 child sexual abuse images. Search history on that MacBook included terms like “teenfundies,” “pedopounder,” “teen pee” and “teen cum target.”

They concluded that MacBook belonged to and was utilized by Menon.

A second MacBook seized from the home contained over 350,000 images, including the following:

• 20 child sex abuse images
• 27 "age difficult" images (where investigators thought they could be child sex abuse material but they couldn't determine the age of the subjects)
• 86 "child erotica" images

Evidence indicated Menon was also the primary user of that device, the arrest report states.
Investigators used Menon's cell phone data to prove he was at his residence at the time the child sexual abuse material was accessed on the second computer they searched. In the same way, they stated they were able to prove it was not Menon's wife because she was at work.

In a statement about Menon's previous arrest, Metro officials said he'd been employed with LVMPD since 2014 and was assigned to the Convention Center Area Command's Tourist Safety Division. In May, he was placed on paid leave and his police powers were suspended during the investigation into his conduct. At last check, Metro police told us Menon was now on unpaid leave.

He is due back in court on Thursday, Oct. 24. Jaewon Jung will continue tracking this case, so check back for updates.