A SYNOPSIS: Nye County’s Criminal Justice System is a Real Mess

(This is posted to bring everyone up to speed on what has transpired here in Nye County, where Pat's trial will be held.  Please read all the way down to get a "clear" (ha ha) understanding of the magnitude of this mess.  Please note, the detective in question is deeply involved in Pat's case.)

by: Featheriver  (this is a summary of the events in Pahrump from another citizen's perspective)

The state of the criminal justice system in Nye County has so many twists and turns it makes your head hurt to try and keep it all straight. Never seen or heard anything like it. It is challenging to try to keep up with it all and describe it in an understandable way. It is all entangled in Nye County politics.

The beginning of it all, at least in public view, started with the arrest of Ted Holmes, a former retired police officer, questioning an out of state police officer about displaying his police badge in Nevada. Holmes is a candidate seeking to unseat the Sheriff of Nye County, Tony DeMeo. That led to the Sheriff’s Office obtaining a search warrant for Holmes’ police badge and a confrontation at an airport hangar and the arrest of Mr. Holmes. Holmes appeared in court later but was given a “certificate of dismissal.” So far as I can determine it no formal charges were filed against Mr. Holmes…at least yet. Holmes has maintained he committed no crime and that his arrest was motivated because he is running for the Sheriff’s job.

Along about this same period of time the District Attorney, Bob Beckett, fired Chief Civil Deputy Ron Kent. No reason for the firing was given except that it was over a complaint by a former DA Office employee. Kent alleges his firing was politically motivated. Beckett is running for re-election; Kent filed seeking his election to Beckett’s seat.

Then came the arrest of Beckett by the Sheriff’s Office on allegations Beckett embezzled money from the Nye County Bad Check Program. Beckett claims the Check Program was under the supervision of Kent and that his arrest was politically motivated. Beckett promptly “appointed” attorney Leslie Stovall as a “special prosecutor” to investigate political corruption in Nye County.

The Sheriff’s Office, complained Stovall was inappropriately appointed by Beckett without the Nye County Commissioners’ approval. Judge Tina Brisebill issued an order which “effectively barred” Stovall from representing defendants in a court of law, according to the Mirror. It is also reported that Brian Kunzi, an employee of the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, also a candidate running for Beckett’s seat eliminates the Attorney General from prosecuting the case(s).

All that may have made your eyes glaze over—but wait there’s more as they say in the commercials.

It was quiet about a week then on May 20 it was reported that Conrad Claus, a Clark County former prosecutor was filing a criminal complaint containing 25 counts against Nye County Sheriff’s Detective David Boruchowitz accusing him of “burglary and assault in an effort to harass candidates seeking public office” naming Scott Cobel, also running for Sheriff against DeMeo and Holmes as “victims.” The news report stated that Conrad was a “special prosecutor” named by Beckett.

In a news conference Claus claims Boruchowitz had “kicked in a door at a home where teenagers were gathered on April 17” and subjecting the teenagers” to search and a breathalyzer tests, all without a warrant. Further Boruchowitz is accused of making “untrue statements” about Holmes in the application for the search warrant leading to the arrest of Holmes.

That is essentially a summary of the state of affairs in the Nye County Criminal Justice System as it appears to me at the moment.

Goodness knows what the final cost of all this will be in the end. It is going to cost the taxpayers in lots of legal costs. Whatever the cost the money that will be spent might have been better used to saving the Mt. Charleston School.

Nonetheless, the whole thing stinks to high heaven.
 (READ ON - THE STORY ISN'T OVER!)
[Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal; Las Vegas Sun; Pahrump Valley Times; Pahrump Mirror]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
AND THE STORY CONTINUES BELOW!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
JUNE 11, 2010 (Las Vegas Review Journal)

Nye County prosecutor hearing set
Court to consider an outside lawyer for criminal case against Beckett

His re-election bid is over, but Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett's legal fight has only just begun.

Beckett is slated to appear June 21 in a Pahrump District Court for a hearing on whether an outside prosecutor should be appointed to pursue criminal charges against him.

The hearing was originally set for today (June 11) in Tonopah, but it was delayed so a new judge could be assigned.

The matter now will be heard by Senior Judge Robert Estes, who was called in after Nye County's two district judges excused themselves because of potential conflicts of interest. 

Estes will consider a request from the Nye County Commission for a court-appointed special prosecutor to review the criminal investigation of Beckett by the Nye County sheriff's office.

Beckett was arrested May 5 in Pahrump and booked on embezzlement and other charges in connection with a bank account his office managed for more than a decade.  

He has yet to be formally charged, in large part because no impartial prosecutor has been identified to review the case and determine whether to proceed.

Voters didn't wait to punish Beckett. The longtime district attorney lost his bid for a fifth term Tuesday, finishing last out of five candidates in the Republican primary. His term ends when his replacement is sworn in early next year.

Estes is the second judge from outside Nye County to be assigned to the widening legal mess.

Senior Judge Joseph Bonaventure Sr. was tapped late last month to hear the criminal case Beckett brought against a sheriff's detective involved in his arrest.

Detective David Boruchowitz faces 27 charges, many of them felonies, in connection with what Beckett and his representatives describe as a campaign of politically motivated harassment and intimidation against the county's top prosecutor and two candidates running against Sheriff Tony DeMeo.

The detective has denied any wrongdoing and remains on the job. He had been scheduled for arraignment on June 18, but Bonaventure put the case on hold pending the outcome of the June 21 hearing.

Meanwhile, the County Commission's request for a special prosecutor in the Beckett case has been called into question because it was filed with the court before commissioners voted on it, a possible violation of Nevada's open meeting law.

Commissioners sought to correct their mistake during a special meeting Wednesday when they voted to retroactively approve the request and hire the attorney who wrote it for them.

Beckett's defense attorney, Leslie Stovall, probably will challenge the legality of that move.

He already has lodged an open meeting law complaint with the state over the way the commission's initial request was filed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~           
SO - this is the "justice system" which Pat Lamoureux is entangled in.  A brave soldier who served his country in combat, has sat in a county jail cell for 21 months waiting for a TRIAL.   When that trial rolls around, how "fair" do you think it will be?   How can there be fairness in a justice system which appears to be over run with corruption?   

In view of the fact that Pat had no previous criminal history, if there was "fairness" here, the District Attorney's office would have done the right thing a long time ago.  Instead, Kirk Vitto, the Chief Deputy District Attorney on this case, intends to prosecute Pat's case to the fullest extent of the law.  Which means he intends to send Pat to prison for what will amount to being the REST OF PAT'S LIFE.