Ex-isle man A former Honolulu restaurant executive faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and other felony counts stemming from a hit-and-run accident in Las Vegas that killed three people, including a mother and her 8-year-old son, authorities said.
held in Las Vegas
hit-and-run deaths
Nevada police arrest
Mitchell Dettloff after
3 days in hidingBy B.J. Reyes
Star-BulletinMitchell Dettloff, 35, is being held on $2.2 million bail, said Gary Booker, Clark County deputy district attorney.
Dettloff, general manager at the Rain Forest Cafe at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas and former general manager of Palomino Euro Bistro at Harbor Court and Ryan's Grill in Ward Centre, was arrested last week after three days in hiding following the April 22 crash, Booker said.
He was arrested after an anonymous fax led police to the Rio hotel where he had been staying with his girlfriend.
"We got an indication from someone who apparently knew him that this was his hangout," Booker said.
Mace Yampolsky, Dettloff's attorney, has said his client planned to turn himself in but avoided authorities while the bail amount was being negotiated. Prosecutors had sought bail of $4 million.
Yampolsky did not return repeated telephone messages from the Star-Bulletin.
At the bail hearing, Judge Jennifer Togliatti said Dettloff's decision not to surrender in the days after the accident factored into her decision to set bail at $200,000 for each of 11 counts against Dettloff.
The accident occurred about 6:30 p.m. April 22, when a black sedan, allegedly driven by Dettloff, tried to use the right-hand lane to pass a Ford pickup truck in the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 95 north of Las Vegas, Booker said. The sedan drifted off the right side of the highway then overcorrected, striking the pickup at about 70 mph and sending both vehicles into the northbound lanes.The sedan and the Ford pickup "get launched across the median and they end up getting into oncoming traffic," Booker said.
Another pickup truck then struck the Ford, ejecting its passengers.
Witnesses said the sedan then crossed the median back into the southbound lanes and the driver got out of his car to shout obscenities at the victims before leaving the scene, Booker said.
Killed in the crash were 8-year-old Benjamin and his mother Holly Barton, 33, who were traveling in the Ford driven by her husband, James Barton, 32. The driver of the other truck, Brian Lee Cooper, 30, was found dead inside the vehicle.
James Barton was hospitalized at University Medical Center and awoke from a coma last Wednesday. He was discharged over the weekend, hospital spokesman Rick Plummer said. Barton was released in time to attend his wife and son's funeral Monday.
Witnesses told police the sedan had paper dealer tags and police traced the vehicle to Dettloff's house the day after the crash, where the damaged black Lincoln Mark VIII was found in the garage, Booker said.
Yampolsky has said witness statements about the crash are inconsistent -- including that Dettloff screamed obscenities. He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that no one can prove his client was driving the black sedan.
Dettloff has lived in Las Vegas since 2000 and has been suspended from his position at the Rain Forest Cafe.
If convicted on all counts, Dettloff faces a maximum of 96 years in prison.
A preliminary hearing for Dettloff was scheduled for May 11, but Booker said prosecutors expect a grand jury indictment in the case by Tuesday.