Nevada DA Refuses to Charge Himself After Arrest by Sheriff
The Nevada Supreme Court has ordered a judge far from the town of Pahrump to appoint a special prosecutor to sort out accusations being lobbed in a fight between the sheriff and district attorney there.
The DA, Robert Beckett, was arrested by a Nye County sheriff’s deputy in May, but no charges have been filed, partly because Beckett refuses to charge himself, the Wall Street Journal reports. Meanwhile, Beckett filed charges against the deputy who made the arrest after a judge ruled the DA did not have power to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate abuses of power by the sheriff’s office.
The public fight has spurred one defense lawyer to write in a legal filing, “A review of the Internet reveals that Nye County is the laughingstock of the known universe.”
The sheriff, Tony De Meo, had claimed Beckett’s arrest was justified because the district attorney misused public funds collected with the aid of the DA’s bad checks unit, the story says. The law allows the DA to collect fees of up to 10 percent of a check’s value to cover administrative costs, to establish programs to battle bad-check writing, or to help crime victims, the story says. The law says the money should be deposited in the county treasury, but Beckett told the Wall Street Journal he got permission to keep the money in a separate account.
Beckett told the publication he used the money to fund community youth programs such as junior rodeos and softball teams, and he did not favor family members. In exchange, he would ask to display a banner to promote his bad-checks program. Beckett says the whole thing was legal; DeMeo disagrees. DeMeo alleges about $6,000 went to support the cheerleading squad and other public money was used to make a friend’s car payments, the story says.
Additional coverage:
Pahrump Valley Times: “Special prosecutor to be named”
Las Vegas Review-Journal: “Special prosecutor, not Beckett, will handle case against Nye County detective”
