A former Las Vegas police officer and his union representation have challenged an arbitrator’s ruling that upheld his termination for making untruthful statements on a 2022 search warrant targeting a suspected drug dealer.
The Metropolitan Police Department terminated Dustin McCabe on Dec. 5, 2025, following several complaints from Donald Savage, whom McCabe arrested on Aug. 4, 2022, on suspicion of possessing stolen property and selling drugs out of his apartment near the 4600 block of University Center Drive.
Court filings showed that after McCabe detained him, police searched a vehicle Savage said that he owned but did not and recovered methamphetamine. McCabe then applied for a search warrant to search Savage’s apartment, where police said they found additional drugs and a firearm, according to court records.
Savage, described in police records as a 12-time felon and whose charges were later dismissed, filed an internal affairs complaint against McCabe in 2024, claiming McCabe made “inaccurate statements” in the search warrant application, including that he could see Savage exit the vehicle from which the drugs police said were located in on the night he was arrested.
But in a motion filed on Aug. 10, McCabe and the Las Vegas Police Protective Association said arbitrator Ross Runkel erred in siding with the department, arguing any alleged misstatements were not significant or consequential to obtaining the search warrant.
“The arbitrator’s determination that officer McCabe made a material false statement was essential to his finding of untruthfulness and, in turn, to his conclusion that LVMPD had just cause to terminate officer McCabe’s employment,” the court filing states. “Because that determination exceeded the arbitrator’s authority, manifestly disregarded controlling law, and was arbitrary and capricious, petitioners respectfully request that this court vacate the arbitration award.”
A message requesting comment from McCabe was not immediately returned.
Runkel declined to comment on the legal filings.
The investigation
Security officers at the Chalet Vegas condominiums, located near UNLV’s campus, had alerted McCabe of apparent drug dealing out of Savage’s apartment, leading police to monitor his activity in the summer of 2022, according to arbitration documents.
Police records showed that McCabe reported seeing Savage drive the same vehicle on July 24, 2022, in which police said drugs were later located. Eleven days later, McCabe said he observed the same vehicle “parked awkwardly” and that a check of its license plate revealed the plates were recently reported stolen from Colorado. McCabe then reported seeing Savage leave the vehicle.
McCabe detained and questioned Savage about the vehicle before arresting him on outstanding warrants. A search of the vehicle uncovered methamphetamine before police filed for a warrant to search Savage’s apartment, where police said they uncovered more narcotics.
Justice Court records show the charges against Savage were dismissed on Oct. 6, 2022, after the Clark County district attorney’s office declined to prosecute him. The district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
However, Metro internal affairs investigators only challenged McCabe’s statements after Savage lodged his complaints nearly two years later.
Savage also filed a separate civil complaint, which was later dismissed, against McCabe and several other individuals and entities, claiming that his personal belongings at his apartment and a storage facility were destroyed or stolen while he was in police custody.
Charges against McCabe
Metro terminated McCabe, who had served approximately six years without any prior disciplinary action, for policy violations pertaining to truthfulness and obtaining a service warrant without state probable cause.
The department presented evidence that it said showed it was physically impossible for McCabe to see the truck from where he was positioned, citing automatic vehicle location data, which led to questions about the legitimacy of the search.
“Officer McCabe’s false statements to Judge Cruz were crucial in establishing probable cause to search Savage’s apartment and led Judge Cruz to approve the search warrant,” the department stated in its internal investigation. “Had Officer McCabe not provided the false statements regarding his observations to Judge Cruz, he would not have established probable cause for Savage’s apartment.”
The union disputed those assertions in both arbitration and court filings, saying the department relied on faulty evidence because the automatic vehicle location system lost satellite signal during a four-minute period around when McCabe reported seeing Savage.
It also said the totality of events would have led a judge to grant a search warrant even without McCabe’s statements.
“There was enough evidence to establish probable cause to believe that methamphetamine would be in the apartment,” McCabe’s representatives argued. “Savage possessed methamphetamine packaged for sale. Savage admitted that he lived in the apartment, where officers found drug residue in plain sight while they cleared the residence.”
David Roger, the union’s legal counsel, added that the department also failed to provide adequate notice of the evidence collected against McCabe before his internal affairs interview.
“This will have to get sorted out in court proceedings,” he said.
Contact Devan Patel at dpatel@reviewjournal.com.
