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Main Character: Las Vegas
Jim Brass
Name James Brass
Gender Male
Birth Date January 3, 1953
Family Nancy Brass (ex-wife; deceased),
Ellie Brass (step-daughter; incarcerated)
Junior James Maxwell Brass (nephew)
Unnamed brother
City Las Vegas
Job Night Shift Supervisor (formerly)
Homicide Detective
Rank Captain
Status Alive/Retired (2014)
Portrayed By Paul Guilfoyle

James "Jim" Brass was a homicide detective for the Las Vegas Police Department. He often worked closely with the night shift team at the Las Vegas Crime Lab. Brass left the show at season 14 finale, "Dead In His Tracks" and returned for the series finale "Immortality".

Personality[]

While Brass could never be accused of being a "soft cop", he has shown regard for the rules throughout the years. After the FBI's Jack Malone slammed a suspect's head on the table, Brass rushed in saying "If you want to rendition him to Gitmo, be my guest. But in this house, we play by the rules." (Who and What)

After David Hodges created a fictional story in which Brass used his nightstick on a suspect, Wendy Simms commented, "Captain Brass isn't the type of cop that smacks suspects around." (You Kill Me)

Abilities[]

Brass usually serves as the muscle for the CSI team and the one who does most of the arresting and interrogating of suspects. [citation needed]

He is usually the one to draw his gun and does not like it when his CSIs try to take dangerous matters like arresting suspects into their own hands. [citation needed]

He also gets on Grissom's case for not drawing his firearm, even in appropriate situations. (All For Our Country)

Background[]

Brass revealed in Brain Doe that his father, who was also a cop, was abusive and that he started hitting back when he was 15.

In high school, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and did two tours of duty in the Vietnam War.

He then spent 20 years working his way up to detective in New Jersey. While working in Vice, he worked hard to clean up his department, earning the enmity of many of his former colleagues (and the nickname 'Squeaky,' as in 'squeaky clean'). [citation needed]

Brass, under stress, sometimes drank and would cover it up by popping cough drops to hide the smell of alcohol on his breath (Early Rollout). While his wife was having an affair with dirty Vice cop Mike O'Toole, Brass was busy with his own affair with another member of the vice squad, Annie Kramer, who later moved to Los Angeles and was promoted to captain. Brass claimed later that it was Nancy's (his then-wife) affair that ruined their marriage, rather than the other way around, and that she eventually just wanted a way out (Hollywood Brass).

Jim Brass transferred out of New Jersey in the 1990s and came to Las Vegas. [citation needed]

He eventually came to run the CSI department, more as an administrator than as an investigator. [citation needed]

Season One[]

After young CSI Holly Gribbs was murdered on her first day in the field, Brass lost his position to Gil Grissom. Brass was then given the position as a homicide detective.

While he was the chief of the CSI's, he and Warrick had a clear dislike for each other, much because of Warrick's actions.

Season Two[]

In this season's episode "Ellie", his step-daughter appears for the first time on the show, as a suspect in Warrick's case.

Season Six[]

Brass tried to counsel Detective Sofia Curtis, who believes she may have accidentally killed another officer in a chaotic shoot-out with a gang of drug dealers during A Bullet Runs Through It. He later is stunned and guilt-ridden to realize that he was actually the one that killed the officer. Later at the officer's funeral, his widow approached, and when Brass tried to explain how sorry he was, she told him that she knew it wasn't his fault.

Brass gave his power of attorney to colleague and friend Gil Grissom, who saved Brass's life by having him undergo surgery to remove the bullet. (Way to Go). After surgery, Brass was surrounded by his other family: the CSI night shift team, who watched over him through his ordeal.

Season Seven[]

Brass went to a tattoo parlor, and had the date of his shooting (May 11, 2006) tattooed just below the bullet scar. (Built To Kill, Part 1)

Immortality[]

After leaving the police force, Brass took a job at Catherine's Casino, working the security. He watched the first explosion of the episode.

While searching Heather's home, Sara runs after a suspect that didn't turn out to be Heather, who eventually enters a vehicle, and when Brass aproaches the car, it explodes, thus putting him in flames, but he soon recovered.

Relationships[]

He shares a great work relationship with Gil Grissom, who succeeded him in the role of graveyard shift supervisor after Cool Change. Their attitudes are complementary to each other: Grissom is the "brain", and Brass is the "gun". They have great respect to each other, and their relationship extends their workplace: Brass grants Grissom power of attorney on his behalf, which comes handy in Way to Go when he suffers a life-threatening gunshot that demands a risky surgery. Grissom decides to do the surgery, and Brass recovers from his injuries.

He shares good relations with Catherine Willows too, with whom he frequently shares a bottle of drink at the end of shifts.

While leading the graveyard shift, they had mutual disrespect towards each other with Warrick Brown, as Brass despised the latter's attitude to work and gambling addiction. After Brass' demotion to Homicide, this hostile attitude faded away both ways.

Brass has an estranged step-daughter, Ellie Rebecca Brass, who is not biologically his (unbeknownst to her till season 13). As he explains it to Warrick Brown in the episode Ellie: "Call it the mailman's. Ellie doesn't know." In fact, Ellie's biological father is former New Jersey Vice cop Mike O'Toole, who Brass discovered to be dirty. Ellie works as a prostitute in Los Angeles, to the deep disappointment of her father. Despite her rebellious behavior, Brass still loves her deeply, and keeps a picture of her as a child on his desk in his office. When he discovers that she's doing drugs, he keeps after her until she cleans up, but their relationship remains difficult and strained. Brass is shot by William Cutler—a wanted suspect in a triple homicide. When he is in the hospital in critical condition, in the Season Six finale Way to Go, Ellie seems more concerned with the pension than her father's likelihood of survival.

Appearances[]

CSI:Crime Scene Investigation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 #
Season 1 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X N/A 23
Season 2 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X N/A 22
Season 3 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X N/A 23
Season 4 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X N/A 23
Season 5 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 25
Season 6 X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X N/A 22
Season 7 X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X X X N/A 23
Season 8 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X N/A 17
Season 9 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X N/A 24
Season 10 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X N/A 23
Season 11 X X - X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X - X N/A 19
Season 12 X X X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X N/A 21
Season 13 X X X X X X X X X X - X X X - X X - X X X X N/A 19
Season 14 X X X - X X X X X X X X X X - - X X X - X X N/A 18
Season 15 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - X - N/A 1
Total 303
CSI:Vegas
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 #
Season 1 X X - - - - - - - - N/A 2
Total 2

Notes[]

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