Prosecutor: Search was proper

Federal prosecutors say Henderson police did not overstep their authority during a drug search that a defense lawyer likened to a "panty raid."

Attorney Chris Rasmussen last month accused police of improperly ordering scantily clad women onto a public street and photographing them during the March 3 raid at the Henderson home of his client, Jordan Williams, a 36-year-old ex-felon.

But in a written response, Assistant U.S. Attorney Drew Smith said comparing the search to a panty raid was a "complete red herring" and an attempt to unfairly influence a judge's opinion in the defense lawyer's bid to get seized evidence tossed out of court.

Despite Smith's opposition, however, U.S. Magistrate Peggy Leen last week set an Aug. 19 hearing on whether to bar prosecutors from using the evidence confiscated in the raid. Rasmussen has accused Henderson police of lying in the sworn affidavit to obtain the search warrant, a claim Smith said was not true. Because U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents participated in the search, the case landed in federal court.

Smith said the photos Rasmussen attached to his court papers, which included one woman in her underwear, were just a handful of the more than 300 pictures police and federal agents took on the morning of the search. Most of the women photographed were fully clothed, Smith said.

Three of the women were photographed in clothing "they chose to put on when they came out of the master bedroom, where they had been asleep with the defendant at 5:30 a.m. when the warrant was executed," Smith wrote.

He said police also had authority under the warrant to take photos of any identifying tattoos of the people living in the two-story house. One of the photos Rasmussen filed in court is a frontal close-up of a woman who has pulled down her panties to show a tattooed cluster of cherries that would otherwise have been obscured.

Williams, who is facing weapon possession and forfeiture charges, is in federal custody on no bail. He has a long criminal history in California and Nevada that includes felony convictions for grand theft and fraud.

Rasmussen contends police falsely alleged in the search warrant affidavit that women living in the house might have been prostitutes.

Smith, however, wrote that the prostitution claim was backed up by several sources.

Five women were living in the home at the time of the raid, including Williams' wife, Jenny Quintana, who runs a business out of the home called Eye Candy Girlz.

The business, among other things, helps women find jobs as exotic dancers, Rasmussen said. The women generally are new to the area and may stay in the home leased by Williams and Quintana until they make other arrangements. Some, but not all, of the women worked as exotic dancers, but none was a prostitute, he said.

Police records show that officers and ATF agents seized boxes of ammunition and three loaded weapons, two revolvers and a shotgun, from Williams' master bedroom during the raid.

Also among the items confiscated were two marijuana cigarettes, 1.4 grams of cocaine and several vials described as steroids, the records show.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135 or read more courts coverage at lvlegalnews.com.