Accused Las Vegas burglar facing 14 years in jail claims he’s a British royal
A man jailed in Las Vegas ahead of three court appearances this week on charges that could put him in prison for up to 14 years claims that he holds a British royal title, police said on Monday.
Alexander Montagu-Manchester identified himself to detectives as the 13th Duke of Manchester, said Las Vegas police Officer Laura Meltzer, a department spokeswoman. The royal title dates back 950 years in Britain, to the time of William the Conqueror.
Montagu-Manchester, 53, is due to face a judge on Tuesday on a burglary charge stemming from a break-in at a home in July. Police said he was found shirtless about 2.30am in a neighbouring home shortly after the burglary was reported, and said he lived there.
Montagu-Manchester is also scheduled in court on Wednesday in a separate felony false police report case that led to his arrest on August 12. He’s been jailed since then.
He will face another judge on Thursday for a misdemeanour driving under the influence of drugs case from 2015. Prosecutor Eric Bauman said he’s accused of having high levels of the muscle-relaxant benzodiazepine in his system at the time.
Meltzer said police reports didn’t specify Montagu-Manchester’s citizenship. A man who answered the phone for the British consulate in Los Angeles said on Friday he could not give information about Montagu-Manchester without his authorisation.
An arrest report states that Montagu-Manchester told Las Vegas police on August 3 that his estranged wife attacked him with a knife two days earlier, badly cutting his thumb as he moved into a new apartment. Laura Montagu denied that she cut him and said she never visited the new apartment.
A police detective said in the report that a moving company employee who had been at the apartment and hospital medical personnel said Montagu-Manchester told them he injured himself using a bayonet to cut packing box tape.
Montagu-Manchester is represented by separate court-appointed public defenders in his three cases.
Attorneys Justin Glasgow, Jennifer Fraser and Robert O’Brien, who are representing him, said in an email on Monday that the charges involve unproved allegations, and that Montagu-Manchester will plead not guilty in each case.
They didn’t immediately respond to a follow-up question about their client’s family lineage.
Montagu-Manchester resolved a felony bad cheque charge in Las Vegas in 2013 without being convicted after paying restitution, court records said.
That came several months after he pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge alleging he pointed a gun at someone. The charge was dismissed after he completed a court diversion programme.