LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — We’re now hearing from the man who was arrested on the Las Vegas Strip back in May after the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said one of their own sergeants bumped into him to elicit an aggressive response.
Suspended Metro Sgt. Kevin Menon, 42, is facing charges in two separate criminal cases.
- The first is related to fabricating reasons to stop people on the Strip and arresting them.
- In another case, Metro police said Menon possessed child sex abuse material on two of his devices.
Marquise Brown spoke exclusively to Channel 13 about his arrest on the pedestrian bridge between Caesars Palace and the Bellagio on May 3.
Brown, 31, is from Fresno, California, and had just moved to the Las Vegas valley a week before his arrest took place.
“I was just walking down the bridge, enjoying my night,” Brown said. “All of a sudden, like, I feel a hard, like, you know, shoulder bump on my right side.”
He told Channel 13 he moved to Las Vegas with the hope of embarking on a new chapter.
“I graduated. Never got in trouble,” Brown said. “I have a license, clean record, like, I just, I'm just out here trying to make an honest living for myself.
Surveillance video from the Bellagio appears to show Menon deviating from his walk path to collide with Brown.
“He looks like a pedestrian, but he looks angry. He looks mad. Don't know what his problem is,” Brown said. “He turns around and puts his hand up and goes, ‘You got a problem?’”
Brown said he was trying to register the situation and when he asked “Do you have a problem?” back to Menon, that’s when two officers arrested him.
He said he didn't know Menon was a sergeant until he saw Channel 13's coverage of the story.
Menon was indicted in October by a Clark County grand jury on several charges including oppression under the color of law.
Surveillance video and Metro bodycam footage were shown to the grand jury. During Brown’s arrest, you can hear him tell officers another man had bumped into him.
Officers Justin Candolesas and Stephen Cosaro put Brown in handcuffs that night and testified to the grand jury they saw Brown openly carrying a knife, which is not allowed under Clark County ordinance.
WATCH | Bodycam footage shows Sgt. Menon's suspected arrest tactics, more officers testify
Both officers said they heard Brown tell Menon “Do you have a problem?” and were afraid Brown would get into a fight.
But Brown said he’s not a violent person and the knife was an accessory that he wears.
“I did have a knife, yes, but the knife wasn't for anything like, you know, not even for protection,” Brown said. “Basically, it's a leather holder for the knife. And I'm just basically strapping on the side, like, cowboy style.”
After the arrest, Brown said he was taken to jail and went to court the next day. According to Las Vegas Justice Court records, Brown was facing one misdemeanor charge of unlawful acts of weapons on the Strip corridor, but the charge was dropped in July.
“The whole process from when I got arrested until when they let me go was just a pain in the butt, man, pain in the butt,” Brown said. “It was a long process. It was a waste of time.”
Brown’s arrest was just one of several incidents shown to the grand jury in the case against Menon. According to police documentation, the arrests made were mostly on Black men.
“I felt like I was being set up, but targeted, that's like a harsh word,” Brown said. “That's just like the reality, yeah, I was being targeted.”
Brown now wants to get justice and is hoping his side of the story sheds light.
“I didn’t want this situation to make me bitter. I wanted to learn from it so I’ve just been focused and trying to move on from it,” Brown said.
He said this experience has changed his perspective on law enforcement in Las Vegas, and he hopes the other officers who worked alongside Menon are also held accountable.
“I feel like they were a very big part of it. They had as much as to do with it as the sergeant did,” Brown said. “If they felt like, in any way in their heart, that it was wrong, they didn't have to do it.”
Currently, no other officers in Menon’s Flex squad are facing charges.
Menon is set to be in court for an arraignment on his criminal indictment on Nov. 6.
