Sheriff Tony DeMeo
DA Bob Beckett
It isn’t every day that Pahrump and Nye County makes the Wall Street Journal. The headline in the Journal issue of July 6 heralds “High Noon in Pahrump, Nev.: Sheriff Arrests the District Attorney.” The sub headline reads “The D.A. Chooses Not to File Charges Against Himself, Investigates His Nemesis.”
The article begins “Like a scene from a Western movie, the two top lawmen here are settling their scores in public.” Forging onward the Journal reports the D.A. appointed a special prosecutor “to investigate possible abuses of power by the sheriff’s office and other public officials.” The special prosecutor filed felony charges against deputy sheriff, David Boruchowitz, for arresting Beckett.
The Journal article proceeds to explain the arrest of District Attorney Robert Beckett by Sheriff Tony DeMeo’s deputy for allegedly “misusing public funds.” Then it points out that “…the D.A., refuses to charge himself.”
“[A]fter he (Boruchowitz) was summoned to lock himself in the corrugated metal county jail, he sent out a press release with his own mug shot announcing he had been arrested. A judge later rejected the charges, contending Mr. Beckett didn’t have the power to appoint a special prosecutor. So Mr. Beckett refilled the charges himself.”
The Journal then describes Nye County as “twice the size of New Hampshire…Most of the county is so desolate that for years the military conducted atomic testing here.…Its sparse local economy includes a gold mine and a dairy farm, as well as seven brothels whose fees finance the county’s ambulance services.” Pahrump gets its mention as being 45 minutes from Las Vegas and the “local government struggled to keep up with the proliferation of houses and mini-malls strewn across the desert.”
The Journal characterizes the beef between DeMeo and Beckett this way. “Mr. DeMeo complains that his department arrests people who never get prosecuted. Mr. Beckett contends that some of the sheriff’s cases aren’t solid.”
“I’ve often said they need a mother to stop the fighting,” said Mr. Beckett’s wife, JoDee Beckett. “It’s like two little boys.”
Noting the cases against Beckett and Boruchowitz “got bogged down” because the other legal figures had some connection to the “two suspects,” the two district court judges and justice of the peace recused themselves. The Nevada Attorney General can’t get involved because one of its lawyers is running for district attorney (that would refer to Brian Kunzi.)
One defense attorney is quoted as writing in a legal filing “A review of the Internet reveals that Nye County is the laughing stock of the known universe.” The Journal also notes, “Public officials in Nye County have frequently have been accused of misconduct” citing two bribery cases, an arrest of a former county commissioner for alleged securities fraud, and attempts to recall public officials in 2009.
“Chief Deputy District Attorney Kirk Vitto said he’s concerned ‘the sideshow will take over the circus.’”
The Journal’s article has received a number of comments to its article. Michael McBride of Sydney, Australia writes “This is the U.S. legal system at its best. The legal systems across the country are in no better shape, somewhere else there would have been a back room deal and back scratching with nobody being charged.”
“Sounds more like a Dukes of Hazzard episode,” wrote Mark Holdgrafer. “Is this a Monty Python skit?” asked Denise Pace. Three hundred thirty-one (331) Facebook users expressed that they “like” the WSJ story.
TPM Muckraker refers to the matter as “an intractable boondoggle for the poor desert county where they live.” “Damn. I was hoping for an actual ten paces turn & fire duel,” wrote Acewrap to the TPM coverage. Even MSNBC gets in the coverage of Nye County.
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