Police officer tells her side of shooting

Las Vegas police officer Janet Beck told jurors Friday that Dennis Jaeger fired at her twice before she shot him in April 1990, but Jaeger testified it was the officer who discharged her weapon first.

Jaeger, who suffered gunshot wounds to the side and foot, faces an attempted murder charge as a result of the confrontation that occurred in his back yard at 1672 Gabriel Drive.

District Judge John McGroarty excused one juror Friday morning after the man realized he and Beck attend the same church. An alternate replaced that juror.

Defense attorney Thomas Pitaro told jurors early on in the trial that police officials have lied to protect Beck, and he questioned the officer about several inconsistencies in sworn statements and testimony she has given about the incident.

"Isn’t it true that what really happened is that you panicked and went back and tripped _ tripped over this block?" the attorney asked Beck, who is now a detective.

"No, it’s not," she said.

Beck said it was late Easter night when she responded to a reported domestic dispute at the Gabriel Drive residence and discovered that Jaeger’s wife had been locked out.

The officer said her partner knocked loudly at the front door and announced his presence through a broken window.

She then went to the back yard and tried again to gain Jaeger’s attention by knocking on a door with her baton, she said.

Beck said she was putting her baton away when the back door swung open suddenly. She looked up and saw a man two or three feet away with a revolver pointed in her direction, she said.

The officer said the man failed to respond to her requests that he drop the gun, so she ducked between two bushes and dived behind a low cinder block wall as he came toward her.

Beck said she saw the muzzle flash of his gun but never heard it go off. She then pulled out her weapon and shot back, she said.

"I was firing at that man right there, the husband of Brenda Jaeger," Beck said, pointing at the defendant.

The officer said she felt pain in her arm and later realized that flying pieces of cinder block had struck her.

Beck said she also injured her lower back, but Pitaro asked her if that information appeared either in a voluntary statement she gave a detective that night or in a transcript of her testimony to a grand jury later that year. She said it did not.

In response to more of Pitaro’s questions, Beck confirmed that she and the other officer had filed a civil lawsuit against Jaeger. Jaeger also has sued the Police Department.

Deputy District Attorney Arthur Noxon asked Beck if she felt fear when Jaeger opened the back door.

"I got real scared when he didn’t follow my commands," she said.

Jaeger told jurors he had gone to sleep after his wife left their home that night and awakened only after he heard dogs barking.

The defendant said he opened his back door and asked who was outside. He then heard someone utter a profanity and begin shooting, prompting him to return fire in self-defense, he testified.

Outside the presence of the jury, Pitaro told the judge he should not have allowed Noxon to ask questions that revealed Beck had recently given birth.