LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Clark County grand jury has indicted former Las Vegas Raiders cornerback Damon Arnette after police said he lost his valet ticket at a Strip hotel and threatened a valet with a gun, documents said.
On Jan. 28, 2022, Las Vegas Metro police arrested Arnette, 26, on charges of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, assault with a deadly weapon, and two drug charges. The Clark County District Attorney’s Office dropped the case in July 2022.
Last week, the grand jury indicted Arnette on the assault with a deadly weapon and firearm-related charges, records showed.
On the night of the alleged incident, a Park MGM parking attendant asked Arnette for his valet ticket, which Arnette had thrown out, his initial arrest report said.
When the parking attendant asked Arnette for more information about his car to find it and confirm his identity, the former Raider reportedly said, ‘Give me my [expletive] keys,” police said. The parking attendant also said he heard the “sound of a gun cocking” and that he thought Arnette “was going to shoot him and his manager,” the report said.
“I guess he didn’t know where his valet ticket was, he couldn’t find it,” a Metro police officer told the grand jury last month, according to transcripts. “They didn’t want to give him his valet ticket and he got upset and produced a firearm and took the keys.”
Police later stopped Arnette at a gas station on Las Vegas Boulevard, believing the car was stolen, documents said.
“I was able to see Mr. Arnette standing by the vehicle that he claimed was his and he was confrontational,” an officer told the grand jury about Arnette’s arrest. “And I saw him reach down into his waistband of his sweatpants and pull out what appeared to be a gun and place it into the driver’s side door, which at that point was open.”
Arnette denied pointing the gun at anyone, transcripts said.
“The district attorney’s office made a non-prosecution decision presumably after reviewing the video corroborating what Damon told the police that he never carried or pointed a gun at anyone,” Arnette’s attorney, Ross Goodman, said after prosecutors dropped the charges in 2022.
In November 2021, the Raiders dropped Arnette after a video of Arnette went viral where he is seen brandishing a gun and threatening to kill someone.
Arnette, a Raiders’ 2020 first-round pick, was cut less than a week after No. 12 overall pick Henry Ruggs III was released following a fatal DUI crash.
Arnette had an agreement to join the Kansas City Chiefs, but the team released the cornerback from his future contract after his arrest.
In July 2022, police in Miami arrested Arnette on drug charges. According to the arrest report obtained by 8 News Now, Arnette, police pulled Arnette over when a police officer recognized the car he was driving because he had made a stop on that same vehicle about three hours earlier and the driver, Arnette, was cited for driving on a suspended license.
During the second stop, Arnette was arrested and searched. The arrest report said police found “a small pink ziplock baggie containing a white powdery substance consistent with that of cocaine, along with a straw that was cut into a small piece resembling a device that is common for cocaine use.”
The report said after Arnette was pulled over earlier in the evening, another licensed driver drove the vehicle from the traffic stop. Officers said Arnette was warned he was not to drive until his license was reinstated.
Arnette was sued in a hit-and-run crash that occurred on Oct. 14, 2020, in Henderson. He was also sued in a May 28, 2021, dispute with a valet at Aria Resort & Casino. The latter case was dismissed.
Goodman did not immediately return a request for comment on his client’s indictment. 8 News Now has asked the district attorney’s office why it was pursuing charges after dropping the case.
Arnette was due in court on May 24.
