A Las Vegas judge is threatening to hold cops in contempt for refusing to release a violent career criminal with 35 busts on his rap sheet — a legal scrap testing the power of the bench over the badge.
Las Vega Metro police are challenging the authority of Justice Eric Goodman over the fate of Joshua Sanchez-Lopez, a 36-year-old repeat felon whose priors include involuntary manslaughter, drugs and car theft, according to a report by KLAS-TV News.
Goodman wants the goon released with an ankle monitor — but cops said he’s too dangerous to cut loose.
“We have to take a look at that and say, ‘Is this somebody who our electronic supervision program can monitor safely in the community?” Mike Dickerson, assistant general counsel for Metro police, told the outlet. “This is an issue of public safety.”
Last week, the department filed a petition challenging the judge’s authority to release Sanchez-Lopez.
“There’s absolutely competing narratives about public safety occurring in our community,” Dickerson told KLAS. “There’s different approaches too.”
Sanchez-Lopez was picked up by Metro police in January on a warrant for grand larceny of a motor vehicle — the latest in a string of arrests that included stints in prison for drugs and manslaughter.
In court, Goodman set bail at $25,000 and ordered that the suspect must wear a monitoring ankle bracelet which equated to house arrest if he does make bail.
On Jan. 29, the police department, which also runs the jail system in the city, told Goodman that they would not release Sanchez-Lopez due to his history of blowing off court appearances and skipping court-ordered rehabilitation programs.
Cops cited a 2020 case when the felon ran from cops lugging a gun, and later took to Snapchat to joke about the ankle monitor he was wearing, adding, “got chased again.”
Goodman didn’t take the snub lightly, and on Feb. 5 warned that the department and Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill, who heads Metro police, could be cited for contempt of court for defying his order.
On March 9, the department filed a petition “asking for the justice court to stop trying to force Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill to violate his statutory duty” — with the case back in court this week.
Meanwhile, Sanchez-Lopez’s public defender said cops are out of line.
“Metro’s argument is flat wrong,” attorney P. David Westbrook told the outlet. “It is the job of the elected judge to decide whether someone charged with a crime should be released and under what conditions.
“The idea that a Metro employee can overrule a judge’s release order and keep someone locked up should worry anyone who believes in the Constitution and the rule of law.”
Under a 2020 statute, Nevada law dictates that judges must consider the least restrictive bail amount when presiding over criminal cases.
According to his court profile, Goodman is a Las Vegas native and has been on the bench since 2009.
