Montana crash expected to cost detective job

A Las Vegas police detective probably will lose his job after he pleaded no contest in a Montana court to a felony charge of criminal endangerment stemming from a high-speed crash last year.

Timothy Nicothodes, a detective in the Metropolitan Police Department's Professional Standards Division, has a pre-termination hearing scheduled in March, police said.

Any officer convicted of a felony will be terminated, per Metropolitan Police Department policy. Because he was charged with a felony, he has been suspended without pay since July.

Nicothodes initially pleaded not guilty to charges of misdemeanor drunken driving and felony criminal endangerment.

He changed his plea Monday, according to The Billings Gazette, pleading guilty to DUI and no contest to criminal endangerment. No contest is not an admission of guilt but an acknowledgment that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction.

According to a Montana Highway Patrol report, Nicothodes was going about 98 mph the night of May 26 when his 2002 Chevrolet Silverado pickup crashed into the back of a 2009 Ford Focus on a two-lane roadway in Yellowstone County.

Both vehicles rolled. Nicothodes, who was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the truck, was in critical condition at the time. He since has recovered.

According to the report, the detective had a blood-alcohol content between 0.192 percent and 0.219 percent. The legal limit in Montana is 0.08 percent.

Police said Nicothodes was driving almost twice the speed limit when his truck collided with the Focus. Evidence indicated he did not brake, police said.

Two people in the Focus were diagnosed with soft-tissue damage and had cuts and bruises, but their injuries were nonlife-threatening, the report said.

Police later contacted the parents of a woman in the Focus who said they knew Nicothodes and had been with him in a bar that night, the report said.

They told police they saw him drinking "significant" amounts of alcohol as they had dinner together, including many shots and mixed drinks.

Nicothodes later asked them whether they would go to a strip club with him, but they declined, police said. One saw him urinating in the parking lot before he left the bar, the report said.

Nicothodes was hired by the Metropolitan Police Department in 1999.

In 2007, Nicothodes as a patrol officer shot and killed burglary suspect Joseph M. Justin after Justin pointed a gun at the officer's partner.

A county coroner's jury ruled the shooting justified.

Nicothodes' duties as a professional standards detective included investigating the background of potential new hires. He is married to Deputy Chief Kathy O'Connor.

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.