Former Army officer, West Point&Duke grad shot by police

You're both welcome. I have a vested interest in the case due to living here and also being a person who carries a firearm. I sincerely hope this case brings about some change in the way we conduct a coroner's inquest in this city. Justified or not justified would make much more sense to me than having the current 3 options available to the jurors.

I don't really like the way they're slandering a dead man's reputation when he can't defend himself or his actions, but it is in the news, and I should probably post the bad with the good. I don't think it has anything to do with the case either but here are the darker details that have come to light.

I thought this was really interesting... Basically the "character witness" they're talking about in the papers and Erik's father's blog, LG or Lydia Gorzoch, is not the most law-abiding citizen herself. She was the 2nd wife Erik met in 2003 and consequently divorced. Here's a brief overview from what I've read...

In 1999, before she met Scott, Gorzoch was a topless dancer, and was partying with Metro Officer Jon Aaron Brown at her apartment, where Brown passed out and almost died from an overdose of GHB and Ecstasy.

Materials to manufacture GHB and 108 grams of it were found at Gorzoch's apartment, along with Ecstasy. Officer Brown maintained he drank the GHB "accidentally", and somebody must have slipped the Ecstasy into his drink in a bar, never mind Ecstasy was also found in the apartment.

For his troubles Officer Brown was on paid leave for 2 years, or a tax payer funded vacation if you will, plus got a $235,000 settlement because he alleged "discrimination" in the investigation.

Gorzoch initially told the jury Brown willingly took GHB and Ecstasy. Then she cut a deal and said she slipped him the GHB, but he knowingly took Ecstasy. It took the jury 30 minutes to clear Brown of all charges and discount Gorzoch's testimony.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2001...fficer-235000/

Later Gorzoch, charged with drug manufacturing and drug trafficking, "struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid a mandatory life sentence". Consequently she was sentenced to probation.

She was able to plead down from a mandatory life sentence to probation? Sounds like a pretty good deal for her if you ask me. Do you think it could have anything to do with saving the Las Vegas Metro PD any more embarassment?

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2001...ves-probation/

If Erik Scott's past behavior is going to be brought up in the inquest, shouldn't past behavior of the officer's involved in his death be scrutinized also?

I received this in an email... interesting side story.

Memorial Site Hacked

A website designed to remember and honor Erik Scott was broken into earlier this morning and, what one expert called, an "atom bomb" was planted. The hosting company has deactivated the website because it was affecting other sites they manage. Some find it odd that the site was hacked and effectively disabled within an hour or two of the following blog post by Bill Scott, Erik's father.

ERIK SCOTT: A POLITICAL FOOTBALL, TOO?

It was Erik Scott's extreme misfortune to be shot and killed, during a Las Vegas election year. Only during political crazy-season could a man be assassinated twice: once by seven hollow-point bullets fired by quick-to-shoot cops, and again by a big-money kingmaker, who orders the news media to malign a shooting victim's reputation. Or else.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie is in an all-out fight for his political life, and Erik Scott's shooting by three of Gillespie's officers has become a serious problem for the incumbent. Since Erik was gunned down in front of the Summerlin Costco store on July 10th, Gillespie's poll numbers have dropped like an untethered anchor. That's cause for alarm, so Gillespie's campaign manager, Kent Oram, came to the rescue with a tired, heavy-handed strategy that's always worked in Old Las Vegas: Trash Erik's character and hope that Las Vegas citizens will conclude Erik deserved to die.

Metro dug up and leaked a few illegally obtained documents, conveniently leaving out the mitigating details that exonerated Erik. Two major Las Vegas media outlets ran high-profile news stories that clearly were attempts to tarnish my dead son's reputation. Kent Oram loved 'em, because he and Sheriff Gillespie have nothing but contempt for Las Vegas citizens. They act under the false impression that Clark County voters aren't smart enough to see what's going on here: Smoke-and-mirrors diversion of peoples' attention from the facts behind Erik's killing.

Oram desperately hopes that employing slander and libel to taint Erik's reputation will avoid hard, very uncomfortable questions, such as: Why haven't the undoctored, original Costco surveillance video data been released to Ross Goodman, the Scott family attorney? Why haven't we all heard recordings of the 911 call placed by a Costco security guard? Why isn't our family allowed to see the coroner's autopsy and toxicology reports, prior to the inquest hearing September 22-23?

It's also important to understand that Erik's simply a casualty of newspaper and TV economics. Consider the stakes of this 2010 political battlefield: Sheriff Gillespie takes care of business for the casinos. As a result, the casino owners have backed his reelection bid with tons of money. Kent Oram is Sheriff Gillespie's campaign manager. Oram also is a long-time heavy-hitter in the advertising business, a principal of OIZ Advertising.

Local newspapers like the Las Vegas Review-Journal live or die on advertising revenue. Without it, they go broke. So, when political kingmaker Kent Oram rolls in and "suggests" a publisher/owner run a negative story about Erik Scott, or he'll make sure thousands of dollars in advertising are pulled, RJ managers cave. Of course, Oram pitches the "suggestion" as a plea for balance, bleating that his candidate, Sheriff Gillespie, feels there's too much positive stuff about Erik Scott in the local news. But the real message is received by the RJ, loud and clear.

Review-Journal reporters Lawrence Mower and Antonio Planas, who wrote the September 10th story entitled, "Dark Details Come to Light in Costco Shooting," were ordered to write a negative story about Erik, using Metro-leaked information. They did—probably holding their noses the whole time—or risk losing their jobs. Savvy reporters know the Golden Rule of publishing: Those who have the gold make the rules. Kent Oram controls a sizable chunk of the Las Vegas-area advertising gold. Consequently, I'm inclined to cut Mower and Planas some slack. Like Erik Scott, they're just pawns in this Old Las Vegas political power play.

But Kent Oram and Sheriff Gillespie can chalk up yet another serious miscalculation. Roughly 90% of the first-day website comments to that RJ story accused the newspaper of stooping to smear tactics obviously orchestrated by Gillespie, Oram and their Metro Tower allies. Direct feedback to us from senior business leaders in the community confirmed that citizens were furious about the RJ story. The Gillespie-Oram machine's attempt to assassinate Erik a second time backfired; it failed miserably. Watch Gillespie's poll numbers take another dive, as a result.

Clark County and Las Vegas residents are fed up with the old-school methods of power politics, whereby people like Oram anoint certain candidates, then vector the city's big money to them. They're sick of above-the-law kingmakers slandering innocent citizens, dead or alive, by putting financial muscle on local media. Thankfully, the voters of Clark County are much smarter than these Old Las Vegas bullies anticipated.

Finally, Las Vegas citizens are scared, because they know that, if Erik Scott could be shot and killed by out-of-control Metro cops, so can they or their loved ones. Scared voters won't roll over and passively accept another four years of unresponsive political and Metro leaders, regardless of what kingmaker Kent Oram tells them.
William B. Scott

Having a number of friends who moved away from Vegas, I can believe every bit of this.

Does anyone else think that the PD's character assassination tactic shows that they don't anticipate a good coroner's hearing for their side?

Pretty goddamned sorry conduct.

What are William Scott's options if the Coroner's Inquest doesn't give justice? Can he sue in civil court for a Wrongful Death? What are the odds of that having a positive result? Is there anywhere at all he can appeal? Perhaps once Reid loses his Senate race in November, Scott can go to the new Senator elect and see if she can do something?

The most metro could do would be to fire one or more of the officers for failing to follow established protocol. It wasn't their fault they showed up, they get the call, they go in.

If officer A told him not to touch the gun and officer B told him to slowly reach down and put the gun on the pavement, then office A ventilates him, where is the crime? If the SOP's say don't let a suspect touch the weapon, have them lie down and retrieve it, then I'd say go fire officer B, he didn't know the procedures and a guy died because of it.

If anyone needs to be charged, it's the clerk and manager if they lied to the cops, failed to post signs, or failed to explain their policy. Scott would still be alive if it wasn't for them.

I don't see why no-ccw signs are legal at all, you can't post a sign saying that people of more than 25% African ancestry can't enter and if they do, it's automatic trespassing. If you don't want someone in your business, just nut up and ask them to leave.

Interesting articles, thanks for continuing to post Irish. Erik's dad continues to call interesting questions.

In the end, I wonder how it will affect the outcome. If I'm not mistaken, the sole purpose of the coroner's inquest is to determine if the shooting was a justifiable homicide. The standards and measures will be those governing the use of lethal force, and only the information known to the officers at the time can be considered in the review of their actions. All the rest will be useful for litigation, PR, and the like, but won't be relevant in the inquest.

Based on the information revealed thus far, including info published by William Scott, it appears likely that the shoot will be ruled justified.