The Las Vegas Metro Police Department responded on Monday to Jose “Chille” DeCastro’s response to their second motion for summary judgment, which is seeking to dismiss two of the claims made against them.
While most of DeCastro’s case was dismissed between a ruling last year by Judge Andrew Gordon and the last summary judgment earlier this year, the issues at hand involve DeCastro’s arrest now that an appeals court threw out his conviction from the charges he was arrested for in Las Vegas back in March of 2023.
DeCastro’s position is that the police had no right to arrest him now that the charges were thrown out. He also says he shouldn’t have been searched because the whole arrest was unwarranted, and the search was then an invasion of his privacy.
In this motion, the LVMPD is rebutting DeCastro’s reply to their motion for summary judgment. DeCastro’s counter argument involves the conviction being overturned and also claims that the arresting officers do not have qualified immunity for the arrest and should be held financially liable for their actions.
The LVMPD’s response claimed that the arresting officer had every right to arrest DeCastro for interfering with his crime scene. DeCastro refused to follow commands at the scene, was obstinate and confessed that he had been arrested multiple times for the same sort of incidents.
As for the search, it was part of the arresting process. Before DeCastro, who had made threatening comments towards the officers and was already involved in a scuffle with the arresting officer, was placed in a police vehicle, a search was warranted by police procedure for the safety of everyone involved.
The LVMPD also contended that even in a scenario where DeCastro’s arrest was made in bad faith, the arresting officer’s immunity still applied under Nevada Revised Statute 41.032.
NRS 41.032 states, ““no action may be brought’ against any public officer based upon ‘the failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function … whether or not the discretion involved is abused.”
Should the LVMPD succeed in their request for summary judgment on this set of charges, the arresting officers in the case will still face trial on DeCastro’s claims of excessive use of force.
The trial is expected to be held in the spring of next year.
