Ex-lawmaker Brooks ordered held on $50,000 bail
Former Democratic Assemblyman Steven Brooks was ordered held on $50,000 bail Thursday on charges stemming from a domestic battery case last year.
Recently released from custody in California, Brooks was arrested Tuesday in Clark County. Along with domestic battery, Brooks faces charges of assault on a protected person, resisting a public officer with a firearm and making a false statement to a public officer.
Prosecutor Richard Scow said Brooks was a “high risk of flight and a danger to the community,” and asked for $100,000 bail. Brooks’ defense attorney, Adam Gill, meanwhile said that Brooks was a changed man since his arrest last year. Brooks has undergone mental health treatment and is taking medication, Gill said.
Justice of the Peace Melanie Tobiasson added that if Brooks were to post bail he would be subject to house arrest.
Last year, Brooks was a “not only a danger to himself but a danger pretty much to anybody he came in contact with,” Tobiasson said.
In March 2013, Brooks became the first state lawmaker ever expelled from the Nevada Legislature. He was arrested several hours later after police say he fled the scene of a disagreement with a tow-truck driver in Barstow, Calif., throwing metal objects out the window of his SUV as police chased him down Interstate 15.
Scow said Brooks “pretty much went off the deep end.”
The chase covered about 23 miles and averaged more than 80 mph until police used a spike strip to stop Brooks’ vehicle in Victorville, Calif., where he was accused of choking and hitting a police dog with a wrench.
He served time in a San Bernardino jail after California police say he led officers on a high-speed chase the same day he was expelled from the Nevada State Assembly. A California judge said he had fulfilled a nearly three-year sentence by credit for time served.
Gill asked for a $20,000 bail, saying Brooks had ties to the community.
“He wants to face the Nevada charges and get this all behind him,” Gill said, adding that Brooks is no longer a flight risk.
Members of his family who appeared in court declined to speak with reporters after the hearing.
Tobiasson set a status check on negotiations in the case for August 18.
Contact repoter David Ferrara at 702-380-1039 or dferrara@reviewjournal.com. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker.
