Skip to footer

Guns N' Roses inquiry prompts Vegas officer to retire

Capt. David O'Leary faced demotion to lieutenant for helping arrange a private flight for a Guns N' Roses guitarist and his girlfriend, the police department said in a statement issued late Tuesday.

|
Aijaz Rahi/AP/File
Guns N' Roses guitarist DJ Ashba reacts to the crowd as he performs during their concert in Bangalore, India, in Dec. A Las Vegas police captain who helped a rock star pull off an elaborate wedding proposal by arranging a flight on a department helicopter has retired rather than face demotion.
  • By Associated Press

| LAS VEGAS

A Las Vegas police captain who helped a rock star pull off an elaborate wedding proposal by arranging a flight on a department helicopter has retired rather than face demotion, and the pilot's flying wings have been clipped, the agency confirmed.

Capt. David O'Leary faced demotion to lieutenant for helping arrange the Aug. 7 private flight for Guns N'Roses guitarist Daren Jay "DJ" Ashba and his then-girlfriend, Colombian actress Nathalia Henao, the police department said in a statement issued late Tuesday.

O'Leary, a 25-year veteran who oversaw the Financial Crimes Bureau, instead retired on Dec. 20.

Officer Ray Horsley, who piloted the helicopter, is being transferred out of the Air Support Detail as of Jan. 11 and will no longer be allowed to fly for the department, police officials said.

The discipline follows a four-month investigation launched after word of the private, unauthorized aerial tour of Sin City came from Ashba himself.

Ashba posted a photo on Instagram of himself and Henao wearing helicopter headgear and thanked the Las Vegas police department for "the most amazing" private helicopter tour over the city.

He said it ended in a field at police headquarters where he proposed amid roses and "a bottle of the bubble stuff."

In the post, Ashba called the moment "magical," adding, "And thanks to our good friends for helping making it all happen!!"

The couple married in September.

Police officials concluded that O'Leary and Horsley violated department policy.

"A fly along and a patrol ride along are typically done for the purpose of exposing members of the community to the duties of law enforcement," the department's statement said. "A fly along would begin and terminate at Air Support and would not include any off site landings as occurred in this case."

The statement added that the "civilians" directly involved in the flight declined to be interviewed as part of the internal investigation.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Guns N' Roses inquiry prompts Vegas officer to retire
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0102/Guns-N-Roses-inquiry-prompts-Vegas-officer-to-retire
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe