Update on corruption in Pahrump

COURTS HEAR REQUESTS TO DISQUALIFY BECKETT

Pahrump Valley Times
Mark Waite
July 16, 2010

Dozens of requests to disqualify the Nye County district attorney’s office and recuse judges from hearing cases in which Sheriff’s Dep. David Boruchowitz is involved have begun to hit the courts.

The requests, by public defenders working for the Gibson and Kuehn law firm, claim the DA’s office should have provided them with evidence under the rules of discovery to back up claims by DA Bob Beckett that Boruchowitz is a liar and perjurer.

Beckett and Boruchowitz became involved in a highly-publicized spat after Boruchowitz arrested Beckett May 5 for misusing funds in the Bad Check Program, after which Attorney Conrad Claus, a prosecutor appointed by Beckett, filed 25 counts against Boruchowitz on May 20 for a variety of charges including false arrest and oppression under color of office.

The first case in which the motion to disqualify the DA’s office was heard involved murder suspect Timothy Liapes, accused in the March 2009 death of Robert Humphrey. Attorney Harry Kuehn referred to Beckett’s published statement that “we have affidavits of perjury against Boruchowitz.”

Beckett went on to say in a Pahrump Valley Times interview that he had no faith in any criminal case in which Boruchowitz was involved, Kuehn’s motion said.

In response, Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo referred to the order issued by visiting Judge Robert Estes, in which Estes said documents he reviewed weren’t affidavits of perjury and were not relevant to the Liapes case.

Mere allegations of the untruthfulness of a police officer is not exculpatory evidence — evidence to clear Boruchowitz from fault, Estes noted.

Kuehn’s motion said Liapes couldn’t be prosecuted by a suspected liar. Liapes is scheduled for a status hearing July 26.

While both 5th District Judges Robert Lane and John Davis declined to grant the motion to withdraw the DA’s office from cases and didn’t recuse themselves, attorneys for Gibson and Kuehn note Joseph Patrick Lamoureux’s case has been continued until a calendar call Jan. 11, or after Beckett leaves office.

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http://pvtimes.com/news/courts-hear-requests-to-disqualify-beckett/.