Abuse allegations should disqualify judge, Las Vegas sergeant’s attorney says

An attorney for a Metropolitan Police Department sergeant accused of misconduct has filed a motion to disqualify the judge overseeing his client’s case after the judge’s daughter accused her father of abuse.

Authorities have said Sgt. Kevin Menon unlawfully detained people on the Las Vegas Strip and possessed more than 500 sexual images of girls.

Dominic Gentile and Austin Barnum, who represent Menon in the Strip case, filed the motion Monday.

The document argues that District Judge Ronald Israel “suffers from, at a minimum, implied bias” because the allegations his daughter has made would be investigated by the same Metro unit that employs a detective who looked into Menon.

That could lead Israel to avoid rulings unfavorable to police, Gentile said in the filing.

Israel’s clerk referred a reporter to a court spokesperson, who said Israel would not be able to comment because the case is pending.

According to Metro, there is no investigation into Israel and there has never been one.

Sarah Israel said in YouTube and TikTok videos that her life was “completely at risk” and that her father withheld health care from her, according to video excerpts quoted in an exhibit to the motion.

“The last time I was at my dad’s house, he tried to pull a gun on me,” Sarah Israel said in one video, according to the filing.

Sarah Israel could not be reached for comment.

In a declaration filed Monday, Gentile, an attorney for over 50 years, said he had never before filed a motion to disqualify a judge.

“This affidavit and motion are filed in good faith, after conducting due diligence to verify the existence of the facts asserted, are not interposed for delay, are not intended to harass Judge Israel, are not filed for the purpose of unnecessarily increasing the costs of litigation and are not filed in an effort attempting to prevent prosecution,” Gentile wrote.

Longtime defense attorney Robert Langford said he has never attempted to disqualify a judge.

Motions to do so are risky, he said. There’s a high standard and an attorney who tries runs the risk of upsetting the judge.

“If he wins, it would be extremely, extremely rare,” Langford said. “And it is extremely, extremely rare to file one. It really is lightning in a bottle.”

In the motion, Menon’s attorneys cited the case of Jose Echavarria, who was convicted of fatally shooting FBI Special Agent John Bailey in 1990 but was later granted a new trial.

District Judge Jack Lehman, who presided over Echavarria’s trial, had been investigated by Bailey over a questionable land deal. Defense attorneys did not learn of the investigation until after the trial.

In 2018, a panel of 9th Circuit judges affirmed a lower court’s ruling that Echavarria had received an unfair trial because of Lehman’s alleged bias. Lehman died in 2017.

Last year, the Clark County district attorney’s office attempted to have District Judge Erika Ballou removed from all of its cases, alleging she was biased against prosecutors. The Nevada Supreme Court had Ballou removed from one case, but she continues to hear criminal cases filed by the district attorney’s office.

A hearing on the motion to disqualify in Menon’s case is scheduled for April 3.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.