Kenny Smith, an Army veteran, was handcuffed in double locks and driven toward jail by North Las Vegas marshals over a warrant that records indicate was never properly verified. He later sued the city and settled his federal civil-rights case for $25,000, all while representing himself in court.
According to KTNV, Smith's ordeal began on March 12, when two city marshals showed up at his home to serve what they said was a no-bail warrant. Smith insisted there was no warrant, but the marshals placed him in double-locked handcuffs and took him toward jail anyway, per police records cited by the station.
Chief Marshal Andy Popovsky did not verify the warrant until Smith challenged it on the way to jail, the station's report notes. Surveillance video showed the vehicle never actually entered the jail, and Smith was let go once the warrant could not be confirmed. Smith then filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the city of North Las Vegas and the individual marshals, alleging false arrest and false imprisonment.
Two Different Explanations for the Warrant
The city offered one explanation for how the mistake happened, while internal paperwork told a different story. North Las Vegas said a court employee had inadvertently accessed the training version of its new case-management system and found a warrant that appeared to be active, the same report states.
But a second version of the police report, uncovered by Smith during discovery, said the warrant had initially been confirmed through the new system rather than mistakenly pulled from a training environment. The same account notes that Smith found two versions of the identical police report, both bearing the same date and time stamps; the first said the warrant could not be confirmed, while the second removed an apology that had been included in the earlier draft. North Las Vegas denied that it had changed the narrative, the station's report notes, and argued Smith bore some responsibility for the arrest because his information was in the system due to a separate pending criminal case.
The city has not answered why the warrant was not verified before Smith was handcuffed and taken into custody, per the same account. North Las Vegas called the episode an isolated incident, while the new JWorks system cited in the explanation cost taxpayers more than $1.1 million, according to the station's reporting. equivant-court.com reported that North Las Vegas Municipal Court selected the JWorks Case and Document Management System in October 2024, intending it to modernize the court and improve reporting, communication and transparency.
A Prosecutor's Texts and a Case Still Open
While the civil lawsuit has been resolved, the underlying criminal case against Smith has not. Smith's misdemeanor domestic-battery case remains open with no trial date, and he has said he will continue fighting it, the same report states.
That case took its own turn after discovery revealed Deputy City Attorney Suzanne Berube Rorhus had sent text messages to Smith's ex-girlfriend from her personal phone about seeking an arrest warrant tied to Smith's case. Per the station's account, Rorhus asked the ex-girlfriend to obtain an arrest warrant for herself or risk being handcuffed in front of her daughter. The ex-girlfriend said she did not want to appear in court or press charges and asked to be left alone, the report notes.
As a result, Rorhus and the entire North Las Vegas City Attorney's Office have been removed from Smith's criminal case, which is now being handled by a special prosecutor. North Las Vegas did not respond to questions about the text messages, its policy on using personal phones to contact witnesses, or whether any discipline resulted, according to the same reporting.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Costly Settlements
Smith's payout is not an isolated line item in the city's budget. Four police settlements across three jurisdictions over the past four months have cost taxpayers more than half a million dollars, per KTNV's reporting.
Software-driven arrest errors are not unique to North Las Vegas, either. In North Carolina, attorneys have said problems tied to the state's eCourts software rollout led to arrests on invalid warrants and delayed jail releases, according to CBS 17. Attorneys there asked a federal court to approve a proposed $1.5 million class-action settlement with Tyler Technologies, which would provide $2,800 per wrongful arrest and additional compensation for people held in jail too long, with payments capped at $5,000 per person; that settlement remains subject to court approval, the outlet reported. The proposed settlement would resolve claims against Tyler Technologies only, while claims against the Mecklenburg County Sheriff remained pending, CBS 17 reported.
Under North Las Vegas Municipal Court's own published rules, a warrant is a court order directing law enforcement to arrest a person and bring them before a judge, and a warrant is no longer considered active once a person has been booked on it, according to the City of North Las Vegas Municipal Court. The court's guidance also lists paying bail, posting a surety bond, filing a motion to quash, or surrendering to law enforcement as the ways someone can resolve an outstanding warrant. For Smith, none of those procedures ever should have applied, but the $25,000 settlement closes only the civil half of a saga that, by his own account, is still far from over.
