Former Las Vegas police officer charged in molestation case

A former Las Vegas police officer has been charged with molesting two girls during his time on the force.

Richard Gagnon, 38, was arrested last month by North Las Vegas police and charged with 26 counts of lewdness with a minor under 14, according to court documents.

The arrest came more than two years after Gagnon resigned from the Metropolitan Police Department in May 2006, but the charges stem from incidents between 2001 and 2003, when Gagnon was a police officer, according to the documents.

One of the girls, now 17, told North Las Vegas detectives that she didn’t come forward earlier because she was “intimidated because she knew he was a police officer,” according to Gagnon’s arrest report.

The other girl, now 11, told investigators she stayed silent because she “did not want to spoil his new life” as a newly remarried man with children, the report states.

Both girls came forward in November and told police that Gagnon had rubbed their chests and genitals multiple times about four or five years earlier. The incidents usually happened while the girls spent the night at Gagnon’s home, according to the report.