Man charged in Las Vegas sex assault case from 2005

A man jailed in Southern Nevada has been charged in a Las Vegas sex assault case that went without an arrest for 14 years, court and police records show.

Stacey Brundson, 47, is being held at the Clark County Detention Center, charged with a single count of sexual assault. An arrest report for Brundson shows the charge stems from a rape case dating to Nov. 19, 2005.

The accuser told police that she and her boyfriend were swimming at an apartment complex pool that day when they met a woman, the report said. The trio agreed to go to the accuser’s apartment, where they smoked marijuana. When the drugs ran out, the woman told the accuser she knew a man named “Stacey” who would sell her marijuana.

A short time later, “Stacey” showed up at the apartment complex, the report states. The man told the accuser he had marijuana for sale, but it was at his apartment on Harmon Avenue. The accuser and the woman she’d just met agreed to go to there.

Once inside the apartment, the accuser said she was escorted to a back bedroom, where she was raped. Her assailant told her “if she told anyone, ‘you know what would happen,’ ” the report states. After the assault, the accuser said she and the woman she’d met at the pool were driven back to the accuser’s apartment by the assailant.

The accuser told police she suspected the woman had possibly “set her up” because the accuser said she’d screamed loudly for help during the assault and the woman did nothing to help her. Then, during the ride home, the woman acted as if nothing had happened, making the accuser suspicious.

Upon returning home, the accuser told her family members what had happened and went to a hospital. She told police she gave the hospital staff a fake name because she had warrants out for her arrest.

The report indicates that in 2005 investigators quickly identified Brundson as a suspect after the accuser directed police to the apartment where the assault occurred. Brundson told police he had consensual sex with the woman. The police report states that no arrest was made in the case in 2005 “due to no future follow-up from the victim.”

Cold case review

More than 12 years later, in February 2018, Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Jake Villani reviewed the cold case file. He asked police to compare DNA recovered in 2005 with DNA from Brundson. Villani said that DNA recovered from the accuser matched Brundson’s. Villani also asked detectives to reinterview all witnesses in the case, which they did.

Detectives contacted the accuser, who confirmed the name she gave at the hospital was an alias. She told police again what she said happened to her in 2005. When shown a picture of Brundson, she identified him as her attacker.

Brundson was tracked down on Feb. 7, 2018, at the Nevada Department of Corrections’ Three Lakes Valley Conservation Camp in Indian Springs. He again told police he did not assault the woman but did have consensual sex with her, according to the report.

Las Vegas Justice Court records show a criminal complaint was filed against Brundson in May 2019. The case was moved to District Court in August. Brundson is now scheduled to go to trial on the sex assault charge Aug. 17.

Brundson’s defense attorney, Ryan Helmick, declined comment for this story when reached Thursday.

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