‘Million Dollar Burglar’ alleges false imprisonment in lawsuit

A man who was dubbed “The Million Dollar Burglar” by Las Vegas police now claims he was falsely imprisoned for 16 months.

Bryan Hiser, 34, also claims Nevada prison officials placed him in solitary confinement as punishment for complaining about his illegal detention.

Hiser made the allegations in a civil rights lawsuit filed Jan. 30 against the Nevada Department of Corrections and the Metropolitan Police Department. He is represented by attorneys at Potter Law Offices.

Prison and police representatives declined to comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in Clark County District Court.

When Hiser was arrested in December 2010, police recovered less than $200,000 of the millions in stolen property he was suspected of taking. He later accepted a plea bargain and agreed to be sentenced as a habitual offender.

In June 2012, District Judge Michelle Leavitt sentenced Hiser to two consecutive terms of 10 years to life under the state’s habitual offender law. Hiser already was serving a five-year term in the federal system for being a felon in possession of stolen firearms.

According to Hiser’s lawsuit, Leavitt vacated his judgment of conviction on Jan. 31, 2013. Hiser then “served 16 months in the custody of NDOC without a judgment of conviction,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims Hiser was placed in solitary confinement, “with lockdown 23 hours out of 24 hours,” as punishment for complaining to prison officials that he was being illegally detained.

Hiser was transferred to the Clark County Detention Center, and the judge ordered that he stay there, according to the lawsuit. However, the complaint alleges, jail officials “maliciously transferred” him back to prison.

At a May 2014 hearing, according to the lawsuit, the judge stated:

“Yeah, after everything I did. They even called my office, and I said, ‘You cannot.’ And CCDC was saying, ‘We’re transporting him back.’ And I said, “No, you cannot. He’s not under a term of imprisonment.’ Then the NDOC was pretending that they didn’t. OK, I think it’s bad. And I would suggest the state of Nevada intervene.”

Defendants in Hiser’s lawsuit include various wardens and caseworkers.

According to the document, “Mr. Hiser repeatedly advised each and every defendant of the fact that he was falsely imprisoned, however each of the defendants chose to continue to maliciously imprison Mr. Hiser with deliberate indifference to his constitutional rights.”

When Hiser made his claims of false imprisonment, according to the lawsuit, the defendants punished him by transferring him from the county jail to the state prison system, transferring him from High Desert State Prison to Ely State Prison, and detaining him in solitary confinement.

Before Hiser’s June 2012 sentencing, lead prosecutor Noreen DeMonte penned a report that included more than 100 pages of Hiser’s criminal history.

At the hearing, prosecutor Marc Schifalacqua summed up Hiser’s criminal record by saying, “Mr. Hiser has been a one-man crime wave for approximately the last 13 years here in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s been burglary after theft after burglary. This one man has affected dozens, if not hundreds, of people’s lives.”

Deputy Public Defender Michael Wilfong tried unsuccessfully to persuade Leavitt to give Hiser two concurrent sentences, which would have made him eligible for parole after 10 years, instead of consecutive sentences.

Neither Wilfong nor DeMonte could be reached for comment on what occurred in Hiser’s case after his first sentencing hearing. Schifalacqua no longer works for the Clark County district attorney’s office.

In an order signed Jan. 31, 2013, Leavitt vacated Hiser’s sentence and ruled that he “will be re-sentenced at a later date.”

Minutes from an August 2014 hearing reflect that Leavitt resentenced him to two concurrent terms of 10 years to life. Prison records indicate that Hiser is serving his sentence at High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710. Find her on Twitter: @CarriGeer.