Court challenge prompts county to postpone coroner’s inquest

County officials have postponed the first revamped coroner's inquest because of a pending constitutional challenge filed by the Las Vegas police officers involved.

The inquest into the fatal shooting of Benjamin Hunter Bowman had been scheduled to start Tuesday.

Officers Phillip Zaragoza, Michael Franco and Peter Kruse shot Bowman as he held a knife to the throat of a bartender at a PT's Pub in November.

"This is a very serious issue," Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy said in a statement. "It is imperative that we respect the rights of all involved and give our legal system the time necessary to address this challenge."

The inquest was to be the first under new rules and procedures enacted by the Clark County Commission after critics called the review of police-related deaths too one-sided in favor of officers.

Backed by their union, the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, the officers challenged the constitutionality of the new process last month and asked a judge to order the coroner, justice of the peace and prosecutors not to go forward.

The case was initially filed in state District Court. Lawyers for the government officials moved to federal court late last week because the case involves a constitutional question. No hearings had been scheduled.

The union contends the new rules transformed the inquest from a fact-finding process into an adversarial process where the officers would be treated like criminals on trial. The change at the heart of the dispute was the introduction of an ombudsman who can directly question witnesses on behalf of the deceased's family.