Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Kevin Menon has filed a motion to dismiss one of the cases against him, claiming he is being vindictively prosecuted after trying to combat a “culture of racism and excessive force.”
Menon was indicted by a grand jury in October on counts of oppression under color of office, subornation of perjury and battery on a protected person. Police have accused Menon of illegally detaining people on the Strip.
Authorities also have alleged in a separate case that he possessed more than 500 sexual images of girls.
The new court documents, filed by defense attorneys Dominic Gentile, Vincent Savarese, III, and Austin Barnum on Wednesday, lay out a counter-narrative, one in which Menon was not a corrupt officer, but a whistleblower targeted by police and prosecutors.
“The rampant and explicit racism became too much,” Menon’s lawyers wrote. “Menon flagged issues regarding a hostile work environment, created by his immediate supervisor’s — Sgt. Travis Ivie — explicit racist comments to his superiors. The flags were tossed aside. Shortly thereafter, Menon was investigated and interviewed for a civilian contact and thereafter run out of his specialized unit by Sgt. Ivie, Detective Matthew Pluck, and (then) Sgt. Brandon Oris.”
Metro did not directly respond to a request for interviews with Ivie, Pluck and Oris, but said in a statement that police began investigating Menon in May after his squad alleged he was making unlawful arrests.
“Menon was placed on leave and was arrested on August 30th, 2024, after the investigation revealed he was targeting persons of color for illegal arrests in the Convention Center Area Command,” Metro said.
Chief Deputy District Attorneys Nicholas Portz and Christopher Hamner declined to comment.
‘Hung up on racism’
Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, which represents Metro officers, said Menon’s current situation stemmed from his conduct.
“His own frame of mind and his own actions have caused this,” he said.
The motion said Menon was told he was “too hung up on racism” and ordered to remove a hoodie that depicted a fist and the names of civil rights figures.
Oris, who received a promotion to captain in charge of internal affairs, turned an “administrative action into a criminal action” and selected Pluck, who was working with the Homeland Security Division’s criminal intelligence section, to investigate Menon, the filing said.
Before he raised concerns, “Menon’s performance evaluations at Metro were stellar,” his attorneys said.
Menon, who is Jewish and of Indian descent, said in a declaration that he was interviewed by Pluck and Oris, internal affair investigators, in 2018 after Ivie brought to their attention “a minor altercation which took place during a traffic stop.”
He added: “Sgt. Oris told several of my colleagues that I was a liar, was no good, and that they should be careful around me.”
Menon also wrote a letter about Ivie in 2018 and presented it to a lieutenant, he wrote in the declaration.
According to Metro, “Menon brought forward claims of racism and disparate treatment against a supervisor in November of 2018. At that time, LVMPD conducted two employment diversity investigations, and one internal investigation. None of the allegations Menon’s attorney included in his filing on Wednesday, March 12th, 2025, were ever brought forward to LVMPD previously. Most of the allegations are against Menon’s former squad mates.”
Police said they plan to investigate claims in the filing from the last five years, the window allowed by state law.
Menon’s complaints
Menon complained to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2019 after Ivie learned Menon’s wife was a Black woman and made “racially offensive comments” about Black people, according to the motion.
Metro accused Menon of being untruthful about Ivie, according to a 2019 Metro notice filed as an exhibit.
Menon complained to the EEOC again in May 2024 and to the Nevada attorney general’s office in June 2024, court documents indicate.
According to filings, in his attorney general complaint he claimed that he “observed 4 officers using force against a Black military veteran in crisis on May 5th, 2024.”
Three of the officers “had known use of force issues,” according to the motion’s excerpt from his complaint, and Menon stepped in to “de-escalate the situation and prevent an unlawful use of force.” In doing so, he said, he pushed one of the officers back.
Ten days later, Menon said in the excerpt, he was removed from duty and told he was being investigated for misconduct.
According to the motion, the attorney general’s office did not take action and determined the Nevada Equal Rights Commission or Department of Justice Civil Division might “be better able to assist.”
The EEOC did not immediately respond to a request for information about the outcome of Menon’s complaints.
Judge pushes back
Menon’s attorneys have attempted to disqualify District Judge Ronald Israel, the judge overseeing the case.
They argued Israel “suffers from, at a minimum, implied bias” because abuse allegations his daughter has made would be investigated by the same Metro unit that employs Pluck.
That could lead Israel to avoid rulings unfavorable to police, Gentile said in the filing.
According to Metro, there is no investigation into Israel and there has never been one.
“If any agency wants to investigate the matter, they are welcome to,” Israel wrote in a Tuesday affidavit. “I am unaware of any facts that would even remotely create any bias.”
Sarah Israel claimed in YouTube and TikTok videos that her life was “completely at risk” and that her father withheld health care from her, according to video excerpts quoted in an exhibit to the defense motion.
“The last time I was at my dad’s house, he tried to pull a gun on me,” Sarah Israel said in one video, according to the filing.
In his affidavit, the judge said, “I cannot comment on my Daughter’s mental health issues based on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.”
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.
