Hate crime charge dropped in case against Las Vegas man

A man who was accused by Las Vegas police of committing a hate crime in October was not prosecuted on the charge, and the man’s attorney said the accusation against his client was false.

Christopher Jacob Guerrero, 26, was arrested at 2:20 a.m. on Oct. 6 following a dispute at a business in the 300 block of Desert Inn Road.

Las Vegas police said in an arrest report for Guerrero that he was involved in an argument with a person, and that he then followed a man who witnessed the argument while uttering racial slurs. Police said Guerrero also broke a windshield of a vehicle the man and his female acquaintance were in, causing the woman to panic and drive the vehicle up against a building.

Police initially booked Guerrero at the Clark County Detention Center on suspicion of committing a hate/bias crime, destroying the property of another and resisting an officer. However, court records show that Clark County prosecutors declined to prosecute Guerrero on the hate/bias allegation or the charge of resisting an officer.

Guerrero’s attorney, Malcolm LaVergne, said the accusation that Guerrero uttered racial slurs or resisted an officer was false. Guerrero pleaded guilty in a Monday court appearance to a misdemeanor destruction of property charge and was ordered to pay unspecified restitution for a broken car window.

“The facts of this case were in no way related to or caused by any type of racial bias or animus toward anyone, and the prosecutor’s summary dismissal of the hate crime charge is a reflection of my statement,” LaVergne said in an email. “Mr. Guerrero emphatically denies harboring racial bias or animus toward any groups of people.”

LaVergne said “race was never an issue in this case. It’s a property damage case and nothing more.”

A police report identified Guerrero as being from California, but LaVergne said Guerrero is a Las Vegas resident.

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.