one man.
two towing incidents.
hundreds protected.

Derek Stonebarger is an Emmy Award-winning television producer and internationally recognized filmmaker. When predatory tow trucks descended on Arts District lots during a First Friday event in 2011, he did what any seasoned documentarian would do — he grabbed his camera.

He filmed the tow trucks in action, capturing the operation as it unfolded. Then he followed the trucks to the tow yard, to document the victims. Artists, musicians, and First Friday attendees — many of them in tears — who were being told they owed $300 cash or more to get them back. For many in the Arts District community, that wasn't money they had.

Derek's footage made it onto local television news immediately. But this wasn't a one-day story. Over the following months, as the fallout grew and the regulatory process played out, Derek was featured repeatedly — news crews returned to him for follow-ups as the story continued to develop. He became the public face of the community's pushback against an illegal towing scam.

Eventually, the outcome was concrete and documented: more than 100 vehicle owners received mandated refunds. The towing operators faced state and local fines. The company came under sustained regulatory scrutiny. It was a genuine accountability win — driven by one person with a camera and the willingness to use it.

Years later, a 2nd incident in a dimly lit parking lot occured.  As recorded on pages 1 and 2 of the 2017 LVMPD report below, Commerce Towing Manager explicitly acknowledged knowing who Stonebarger was — citing that prior incident and Derek's visible community roles as President of the 18b Arts District Board and owner of ReBAR. Batt knew exactly who he was filing a complaint against, as a retaliation for the previous towing incident.

On the night of Friday, November 3, 2017, Commerce Towing set up in a dark, vacant dirt lot at 1306 S. Casino Center (Now: Downtown Share Apartments) to execute another illegal mass-towing operation during a First Friday event with the cooperation of the land owner Raul Gil from Casa Don Jaun. Derek Stonebarger was one block away, hosting a community event at historic music venue "The Funkyard" located in the alley behind his tavern ReBAR, when some patrons told him of the towing scam in progress.

Seeing working artists, district employees, and visitors being towed, Mr. Stonebarger organized a group of other community members to intervene — warning arriving drivers, instructing patrons to remain inside their cars, and physically placing themselves between tow trucks and vehicles to legally block tow hooks. Through those efforts, over 100 vehicles were protected that night.

Five days later — on November 8, 2017 — Commerce Towing Manager Mike Batt walked into LVMPD Headquarters and filed a criminal complaint against Derek Stonebarger by name. No police had been called to the scene during the alleged criminal incident. No independent witnesses were secured that night, since no reports were made. In the intervening five days, Commerce Towing combed through video footage and produced a short, indiscriminate clip of Derek Stonebarger walking in the lot — then used that window to construct the entire fabricated complaint. The complaint came five days after the fact, from a towing company operating the same predatory scheme Derek had exposed and disrupted in 2011 —and whom had cost the towing industry regulatory fines and mandated refunds in thousands of dollars and regulatory scrutiny and fines.

The complaint alleged that Derek used a metal object to slash tires on three tow trucks. The witnesses cited in the police report were Commerce Towing's own employees — drivers and the manager himself — all with a direct financial and professional interest in the outcome of the ludicrous claims. No neutral third-party witnesses were identified or interviewed, since the police were never called to the scene.

Derek Stonebarger categorically denies every claim of wrongdoing and every allegation of property damage to Commerce Towing's vehicles. He did not damage or attempt to damage any vehicle or equipment belonging to Commerce Towing — and he's not even certain any tires were damaged at all.

His actions on November 3, 2017, were strictly motivated by public advocacy — to stand up against predatory towing practices, protect Arts District employees and visitors, and prevent over 100 patrons from being wrongfully towed, by doing nothing but sharing information to parkers and attempting to protest against an illegal towing scam.

Despite alleging active property damage to multiple trucks on a busy First Friday night, Commerce Towing called no police to the scene — which would have halted their operation and produced neutral witness statements on the spot. Instead, they waited five full days before reporting to LVMPD Headquarters, using that window to sift through footage, produce a short indiscriminate clip of Derek walking in the lot, and construct the fabricated complaint around it.

The towing company provided detectives a brief, ambiguous few-second video clip showing Mr. Stonebarger walking across the lot. Nothing in the video depicts or supports any act of property damage or vandalism. In the brief clip recorded under truck lights, the report speculates that an object in Derek's hand was a "crowbar" or "tire iron." In reality, as the master of ceremonies of the nearby First Friday event, Mr. Stonebarger would have been carrying a wireless microphone or walkie-talkie used for staff communication. No metal tool was ever recovered or determined with finality.

There is no physical proof that tires were intentionally punctured. The vacant dirt lot was heavily littered with construction debris, concrete chunks, and exposed rebar spikes — never examined as an alternative cause of tire damage, if the damage ever occured.

When contacted by LVMPD detectives, Derek Stonebarger maintained his innocence and flatly denied any wrongdoing.

Defense counsel Dayvid Figler initially indicated the civil dispute could be resolved out of court for approximately $800 — a standard strategy to close the matter swiftly. What followed, however, was far more costly. Commerce Towing's claimed damages ultimately ballooned to over $5,000, encompassing five tires and additional property losses that pushed the case to the brink of trial.

The escalating figure was widely viewed by Stonebarger's team as an astronomical and retaliatory demand with no credible evidentiary basis. Faced with the prospect of a protracted misdemeanor trial — and the tens of thousands in legal fees that would accompany it — Mr. Stonebarger ultimately settled for a smaller, mutually agreed-upon undisclosed amount to be done with the matter. The case was fully dismissed with zero admission of guilt or any criminal finding. Stonebarger retains the right to pursue a countersuit for his own personal damages and reputational harm — an option he holds open to this day.

Every witness cited in the LVMPD report was a Commerce Towing employee — the manager who filed the complaint, and two drivers on his payroll. Not one independent or neutral witness was identified, interviewed, or cited. The entire evidentiary basis for the criminal complaint rested exclusively on statements from people with a direct financial stake in the outcome.

In the years following the incident, both drivers who had provided statements against Stonebarger independently sought him out. They came to ReBAR and, in the presence of Derek Stonebarger and his attorney, explained that they had been coerced into making false police reports — told they would lose their jobs if they did not comply. The recantations were made voluntarily, after both individuals had left Commerce Towing.

Mr. Stonebarger has indicated on the record that, if they are no longer working in the tow truck industry, both may be willing to speak with investigators — including Gaming Control Board Agents — regarding the circumstances under which their original statements were obtained.

The property owner cited in the report, Raul Gil of Casa Don Juan, provided a statement claiming that Stonebarger had told people to park in the dirt lot — a claim that served to frame Derek as an instigator rather than a bystander, and that aligned suspiciously well with Commerce Towing's narrative. Gil's account placed him as a corroborating witness in a complaint filed by the very towing company operating on his property — a relationship that raises direct questions about coordination and motive. Years later, Raul Gil was indicted and convicted in federal court for felony tax evasion and sentenced to more than three years in federal prison. Whatever role he played in the events of November 3, 2017, Gil's credibility as a witness is a matter of public record.

Commercial towing entities frequently participate in political campaign contributions and regulatory lobbying, creating an inherent structural challenge when private citizens challenge tow operators. Predatory towing in the Arts District remains an active community concern — as recently as September 4, 2026, Fox 5 Vegas reported on fake parking attendants targeting First Friday patrons.