Bruce Paddock, brother of Las Vegas mass shooter, pleads not guilty to child porn charges
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A brother of Las Vegas mass shooter Stephen Paddock appeared in court in Los Angeles on Friday and pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of child pornography.
Bruce Douglas Paddock, 58, requested to be released on bail but was denied by a Superior Court judge. Paddock's arraignment had been postponed to Friday due to an unspecified medical issue the previous day.
Paddock's bail was initially set at $60,000 after he was arrested Wednesday at an assisted-living facility in the 5300 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Valley Village.
The L.A. County District Attorney's Office on Tuesday filed a felony complaint against Paddock, who is accused of one count of possessing more than 600 images of child pornography and 19 counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
The investigation began after evidence was discovered inside a business in the 9000 block of San Fernando Road in Sun Valley, according to the Los Angeles Police Department, whose detectives were accompanied by Homeland Security and FBI officials when they arrested Paddock.
"Paddock had been squatting inside the business and after his eviction, the evidence was discovered," the LAPD said in a statement, describing the defendant as a transient.
A law enforcement official told the Associated Press that the child pornography case predates the Oct. 1 Las Vegas shooting, and Bruce Paddock is not considered a suspect in the massacre.
Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds more were wounded at the Route 91 Harvest Festival after Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino-hotel.
