Reality meets reality TV in Las Vegas court for Wolfson ‘docudrama’

In District Judge Douglas Herndon’s courtroom Tuesday, the line between reality and television reality was something of a blur.

Fallen star of History channel’s “Ice Road Truckers,” Timothy Zickuhr, shackled in a blue jail jumpsuit, stood in the jury box with other inmates, as cameramen scanned back and forth from the gallery to the bench.

Prosecutor Jonathan Cooper, with a tiny microphone clipped to his suit jacket, gave an impassioned argument for an otherwise agreed upon sentencing.

“As I was thinking about this case last night, I tried to think of a creative, articulate way to get my point across, to help support why I believe that this case deserves 15 years,” Cooper said. “I spent a lot of time thinking about it, but I couldn’t do it. I failed. Nothing I wrote was good enough. Nothing I wrote could convey the true emotion of this case.”

Cooper’s boss, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, sat in the second row of the gallery to observe the proceedings.

The camera crew was for him. My Tupelo Entertainment was compiling what’s known in the television industry as a “sizzle reel,” a collection of clips packaged together to pitch a show about the DA’s office.

They are scheduled to be wandering the Regional Justice Center all week, capturing footage from various cases, Wolfson said.

Though one camerman was allowed to stand in a spot of Herndon’s courtroom typically reserved for a marshal, the New York-based production company filled out the same paperwork required of every other media outlet — including the Las Vegas Review-Journal — that wants to capture images in a Las Vegas court.

The courtroom clash of television reality on Tuesday was “purely coincidental,” said Wolfson, explaining that his show would be a “docudrama,” rather than reality TV.

“A reality show is very scripted, and the roles are defined up front,” Wolfson said. “A docudrama is not scripted. It will follow cases through the system. So there’s no scripting.”

Zickuhr, once a reality television “warrior of the ice roads,” “hauling vital cargo to remote communities over some of the most dangerous routes in the world,” had cut a deal in December, pleading guilty to charges of kidnapping and extortionate collection of debt, expecting a sentence of five to 15 years in prison.

In Dec. 2013, Zickuhr had kidnapped and beaten Lisa Cadeau, a prostitute also known as “Snow White,” at his apartment on Lynnwood Street, near Sahara Avenue and Paradise Road, after she allegedly took more money than Zickuhr agreed to pay her for sex a few days earlier, police said.

He tied her up, shoved her in a closet, poured ice cold water over her head and threw her out a second story window, Cooper told the judge.

But Zickuhr’s plot was foiled after Cadeau gave him the phone number of Metro officer Adam Seely, who had previously used Cadeau as a source, according to police.

The case was negotiated on the day attorneys were expected to give opening statements to a jury. Defense lawyers Roy Nelson and Josh Tomsheck learned that DNA evidence had linked Zickuhr to the strong-arm robbery of an 80-year-old woman outside the Palms casino while he was out on bail in the kidnapping case.

Zickuhr knocked the woman to the ground, fracturing her left femur and tearing her rotator cuff, and yanked a fanny pack from her hip, according to court records. He tried to flee so quickly that he ran out of his flip flops, which police collected.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in that case next month, so on Tuesday the prosecutor focused on the kidnapping.

“The defendant’s actions — they were unspeakable,” Cooper said as the cameras panned the courtroom. “And maybe that’s why I couldn’t find the words to describe it. Perhaps simplicity is best: The defendant deserves five to 15 years because of his actions. He deserves five to 15 years because he sat there and he victimized a poor and vulnerable woman. The defendant deserves five to 15 years because he’s a bad man. And he needs to go prison for a long time to protect this community, to protect the victim and to be punished for his actions. He needs to be taught a lesson.”

Cooper said he wanted to make sure the judge followed the agreement.

Nelson and Tomsheck, also mic’d up for the hearing, stood on either side of Zickuhr, as the judge asked him whether he wanted to speak.

“These course of actions so to speak has affected myself and my family very much,” Zickuhr said. “I feel very remorseful. I made mistakes. I’m hoping the court will please go by the stipulations.”

Nelson told the judge that prosecutors never produced photographs of injuries to Cadeau, whom he said “had legitimate credibility issues that we were going to address at trial.”

The judge allowed Tomsheck to speak.

“The reality is we had an opportunity to get to know Tim, and your honor’s had an opportunity to read the pre-sentence investigation report, so you know things the state doesn’t point out,” Tomsheck said.

Zickuhr had been diagnosed as schizophrenic, the lawyer told the judge. “This crime happened because of the mental health issues that Tim has.”

When Wolfson presented the idea to the Clark County Commission last year, he said the show would cover cases that had been resolved or have never been brought to justice. Without a working title, the show is “still in an adolescent stage,” Wolfson said, and perhaps months from being picked up.

Zickuhr appeared in 11 episodes of the History Channel show “IRT: Deadliest Roads,” according to the Internet Movie Database.

When he was arrested on the robbery, Zickuhr gave a Hollywood, Calif., address. He has not worked in television or trucking since, Nelson said.

Following the negotiated five to 15 year sentence, Herndon told Zickuhr he was “wise” to take the deal with prosecutors. “Whatever the demons are, you’ve got to get them figured out when you get out of prison,” Herndon said.

Zickuhr could have been facing a life sentence.

The judge also spoke of a friend who asked him whether there were actually four sides to every court case, with details from the victim, the defendant, the media and the judge.

“I get that there are a lot of different avenues sometimes in a case depending upon the perceptions of the people that are involved in it,” Herndon said.

In this case, if a network likes the idea, one more side of the story could be revealed.

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker.