Nevada law prohibits entrapment, which is when police lure or trick you into committing a crime that you had no prior intentions of committing. If you can show that the police entrapped you, courts will typically dismiss the criminal charges.
Entrapment is a common defense in Nevada cases where undercover officers made the arrest. This typically includes such charges as:
The LGBT community is especially vulnerable to entrapment by police. Law enforcement usually targets homosexuals for indecent exposure and open or gross lewdness.
The following bubble graph shows the crimes for which entrapment is a common defense.
Below, our Las Vegas entrapment attorneys answer frequently asked questions about how police misconduct serves as a defense to criminal charges in Nevada. Click on a topic to go directly to that section:
- 1. What is Entrapment?
- 2. Stings
- 3. Detecting Entrapment
- 4. Getting Cases Dismissed
- Additional Reading
1. What is Entrapment?
Entrapment is when police lure you into committing a crime you would not have committed but for the police’s enticement. If police threaten, pressure, or deceive you into breaking a law you are not predisposed to violating, then the police entrapped you.
Police entrapment is unlawful and serves as an “absolute defense” in Nevada. Therefore if you can show that the police entrapped you into committing a crime, then the case against you should be dismissed.1
Example: An undercover male police officer accosts a scantily clad woman he suspects is a hooker. The officer offers her $1,000 for one hour of sex, and the woman tells him to get lost.
The officer previously overheard the woman confiding in the bartender that she is undocumented. So the officer then threatens the woman to report her to ICE if she does not agree to the prostitution. Scared, the woman says yes. Then the officer reveals his identity and arrests her.
In the above example, the officer clearly committed entrapment. The woman’s initial rejection of the officer’s solicitation shows that she is not predisposed to engage in prostitution. She eventually agreed only because the officer threatened her with deportation. Because the cop entrapped her, any prostitution charges should be dropped.
It is not necessarily entrapment for an undercover officer to offer to trade sex for money.
2. Stings
The police routinely set up “stings.” This is when the police use decoy officers to catch you in a criminal act such as:
- soliciting prostitution,
- selling narcotics, or
- buying child porn.
However, sting operations cross the line into entrapment if the officers cajole or harass you into participating in criminal activity you would not otherwise take part in.2
LGBT Entrapment
Nevada police typically target the LGBT community by stationing undercover police officers at:
- gay bars,
- nightclubs, and
- swim parties.
They are looking to bust you for performing sex acts in public (open or gross lewdness) or showing your genitals (indecent exposure).
There is usually surveillance video in these settings that captures the interaction between undercover officers and the people they arrest. If the video shows that the officer entrapped you — or that you did nothing illegal — the charge should be dismissed. Learn more about our Nevada LGBT lawyers.
3. Detecting Entrapment
You may have been entrapped if the two following conditions are true:
- The police “went too far” by enticing you to commit a crime, and
- You were not predisposed to committing the crime.
For example, if an officer posing as a drug dealer threatens to hurt you unless you buy some drugs, then you should not be convicted if you end up buying the drugs. The officer crossed the line by threatening you, and you can argue that you would not have taken part in the drug deal had you not feared for your safety.
Other examples of entrapment may include:
- The police pressuring you to commit a crime by offering huge amounts of money or other incentives.
- The police harassing or threatening you by repeatedly contacting you and asking you to commit the crime.
- The police tricking you by assuring that the criminal conduct they want you to engage in is lawful.
Entrapment also applies to situations where a private citizen acting as an agent or informant of the police engages in any of the above conduct.3
Entrapment v. Lawful Trickery
It is not entrapment when the police simply present you with an opportunity to commit a crime. For example, it is perfectly lawful for a policewoman to dress like a prostitute and proposition potential johns as long as she is not too pushy about it. It is only when the police go too far does entrapment become a valid defense to criminal charges.
Other examples of lawful police trickery are undercover police:
- offering to sell drugs to you,
- lingering in a public restroom asking you to participate in lewd conduct, or
- asking you to purchase child porn from them.
It is also not entrapment if you ask an undercover officer if they are really a cop, and they answer no. Undercover officers are absolutely allowed to lie and claim they are not really the police.4
4. Getting Cases Dismissed
Entrapment is an affirmative defense in Nevada. This means that if a case goes to trial, you have the burden to produce evidence that the police set you up to commit the crime. This is called “governmental instigation.”
If you succeed in showing government instigation, then the prosecutor has to produce evidence that you were predisposed to commit the crime in the first place. If the state fails to show you were predisposed, then the entrapment defense stands and the case should be dismissed.5
Example: Las Vegas Metro arrests John after he sold marijuana to an undercover officer. To raise the entrapment defense, John shows that the undercover officer approached him to buy the marijuana. In other words, John did not seek out the drug sale.
At that point, prosecutors might try to introduce evidence such as surveillance video of John selling pot to other people. This could demonstrate that John was an established drug dealer and predisposed to selling drugs. If no such evidence exists, chances are decent the court will buy John’s entrapment defense.
It is not entrapment when an undercover officer simply offers to buy or sell drugs.
Additional Resources
For more in-depth information, refer to the following scholarly articles:
- Rethinking Entrapment – American Criminal Law Review.
- The Law of Police Entrapment: Critical Evaluation and Policy Analysis – Criminal Law Forum.
- Clarifying Entrapment – International Commentary on Evidence.
- Entrapment and the Problem of Deterring Police Misconduct – Connecticut Law Review.
- Sting Operations, Undercover Agents, and Entrapment – Missouri Law Review.
Legal References
- Miller v. State (2005) 110 P.3d 53, 121 Nev. 92.
- See for example Foster v. State (2000) 13 P.3d 61, 116 Nev. 1088.
- See for example Paul Andre B. v. State (1992) 830 P.2d 1344, 108 Nev. 368.
- See note 2.
- Id.