Nye GOP leader says he was wrongfully arrested
The chairman of the Nye County Republicans, who is facing a charge of impersonating a police officer, actually was a Las Vegas cop for a little over a year.
Bill Carns, 45, was arrested Monday by Nye County sheriff’s deputies near the Wal-Mart in Pahrump. The car he was driving was pulled over after the sheriff’s office received a report that it had fake plates.
Deputies said Carns tried getting out a traffic ticket by pretending to be a Las Vegas police officer and that he’d done it twice before, the sheriff’s office said.
Carns told the Review-Journal through email Tuesday that the car had valid plates and that though it wasn’t registered to him or in Nevada, it has an insurance policy with his name on it.
When a deputy Carns identified only as “McGill,” wearing plain clothes and driving an unmarked police car, pulled him over, he questioned it.
“I was holding my own in the debate,” Carns said. “McGill asked how I knew what I knew. I gave him my old LVMPD personnel number and told him (I) was a former officer.”
The deputy went to his car for a few minutes and came back to arrest him, Carns said.
Metro on Tuesday confirmed that Carns was an officer with the department from February 1995 to May 1996, spokesman officer Michael Rodriguez said.
Carns said the deputies’ version of the story, saying he has pretended to be an officer before is “completely fabricated.” If it were true, he said, he’d have been arrested immediately in those instances.
He emphasized that he “consistently articulates” he’s a former officer and that it is known by the Nye County sheriff’s office since he once sat on an officer-involved shooting review board.
Carns was booked on charges of impersonating an officer and driving an unregistered vehicle with fictitious registration, police said.
He posted bail Monday and plans to contest the charges, he said. Contact Ricardo Torres at rtorres@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0381. Follow @rickytwrites on Twitter.
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL