Sgt. Terry Rising explains how
a detainee broke out of his cell
by breaking the glass and
crawling through.
HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT -
(reproduced under the Fair Use Act)
"Also, starting in 2008, the American Civil Liberties Union began scrutinizing operations at the jail. In a March 2009 letter to county commissioners, ACLU lawyers said that a number of constitutional concerns were raised by a visit to the jail."
Posted on 22 October 2010.
By MATT WARD
PVT
A 31-year-old inmate at the Pahrump Jail broke through a safety glass window in his cell in an attempt to flee Tuesday night.
Deuel Brock III used his feet and left shoulder to ram the glass window on his jail cell door until it finally shattered at about 8 p.m.
Brock was in jail on charges of child endangerment, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and a traffic warrant. He was arrested on Oct. 15.
Rick Marshall, assistant sheriff and head of the Nye County Sheriff’s Administrative Services Bureau, said Brock complained of hearing demons in his head that told him to break out of his cell.
“The good thing is no one got hurt,” Marshall said.
Greg Arms, a sheriff’s deputy and field training officer, was the only jailer on duty when the incident took place. A technician was also there. In a video of the melee shown to the Pahrump Valley Times, Brock is seen pacing back and forth in his cell, scratching and rubbing his head and intermittently running from one end of the cell to the other, kicking and shoving at the cell’s door. In between frustrated attempts to break the door down, Brock checked the door knob a few times. After a half-dozen attempts or so, the thick glass on the cell door shatters and Brock spills head first into the hallway, the video shows. He lands not far from the control center, where technicians use multiple cameras to monitor inmates.
(click below for entire story)
http://pvtimes.com/news/inmate-hears-demons-breaks-out-of-jail-cell/
The majority of commenters on the PVT website expressed anger at the local justice system, including one common refrain that Pahrump is being made “the laughing stock of the known universe.”
Posted 20 October 2010.
By GINA B. GOOD
PVT
Although District Attorney Bob Beckett is leaving his office in 10 days, residents of Pahrump are outraged at what one PVT reader claims “is a catastrophic miscarriage of justice” at the outcome of Beckett’s hearing last Friday at the Pahrump Justice Court.
There are many similar comments posted on this newspaper’s website.
Beckett, who has been Nye County’s district attorney for 16 years, pleaded “no contest” to one misdemeanor count of obstructing a public officer in the case brought against him for mishandling funds collected by the Bad Check Program he founded 13 years ago.
As part of an agreement struck between his attorney Thomas Pitaro and Special Prosecutor Peter S. Christiansen, Beckett will resign at the end of this month rather than leave when his term ends at the end of December.
Beckett must also undergo alcohol counseling. When he complies with those two stipulations, the charges against him will be dismissed and he will have a clean record.
Christiansen said the $20,000 “recouped by the county” by not paying the DA’s salary and benefits for the final two months of his term, will be used in lieu of any other monies that Beckett might have paid back in restitution for mishandling Bad Check program funds.
(
Click below for entire article - and comments)
http://pvtimes.com/news/das-deal-prompts-outrage/
VCS in New York Times Again Raising Concerns About Sharp Rise in Post-Deployment Deaths Among Our Veterans
VCS Advocacy in Action -
This week, VCS is in the news again fighting for our service members, veterans, and families. News articles include another major New York Times investigation, an article by Columbia University, a mention by Democracy Now, and the use of our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) research by CBS News in a segment for "60 Minutes."
On Sunday, VCS discussed the rising number of veteran post-war deaths with Aaron Glantz in an article published in the New York Times. VA and DoD are failing to track these deaths, even though reporters can track the data a the local level. VCS urges VA and DoD to do a better job collecting and monitoring this information. We don't want another repeat of how badly our government handled atomic veterans, agent orange, and Gulf War illness.
With the continued number of Gulf War Syndrome cases, VCS urges VA to increase funding for Gulf War Illness Research in an article published by Columbia University. VCS will be presenting our advocacy agenda at Boston University on Friday, October 29.
In a radio interview with Democracy Now this week, author Aaron Glantz quotes our VCS refrain, "don't look, don't find," describing VA's attitude towards tracking the number of veteran suicides and post-war deaths.
Unfortunately, due to the shortage of doctors, our troops suffering from mental health issues on the battlefield are being sent to chaplains instead of mental health professionals. Our VCS letter to the Pentagon addressing this problem is quoted in an article written by Kelley B. Vlahos. VCS works with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to promote religious liberty within our military.
VCS provided 60 minutes with the statistics used in their outstanding segment about our homeless veterans. Our VCS Freedom of Information Act Researcher, Kristina Brown, obtained this information under the FOIA. These stories take on national significance because VCS has the facts showing that homelessness isn't a local problem, it is a humanitarian crisis our entire nation must address:
- More than two million Americans deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
-
Of those deployed since 9/11, 867,000 deployed twice or more.
- More than 277,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been treated by VA for mental health conditions.
- VA told CBS that 9,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets are already homeless.
Other Important News -
The Army reports a new blood test can detect and diagnose Traumatic Brain Injury that has traditionally been missed in imaging scans and symptomatic prognoses. This is good news.
Congratulations to VA for a superb, poignant, and inspirational video encouraging more medical professionals to work at VA. This is exactly what VA should be doing so our veterans get fast care without waiting. Thank you goes to VA Secretary Shinseki for his leadership to make this happen. We hope more medical professionals will consider working at VA because of this recruiting.
VCS Thanks you for Your Support
(Veterans for Common Sense )
(What is also interesting in this story is the officer mentioned in this article as having approached Holmes is identified as an out of state officer, named Joshua Schiller. Why that is interesting is that Joshua Schiller is listed as an employee of the Nye County Sheriff's Department, and is also listed in the witnesses to be called by the Nye County District Attorney's Office in Pat's case. Additionally, in the yearly newspaper posting of the salaries of Nye County Employees - Joshua Schiller's name is listed there.)
Las Vegas Sun
By Steve Green (contact)
Monday, Oct. 18, 2010
11:51 a.m.
There's more drama in Nye County politics, law enforcement and government, with former sheriff's candidate Ted Holmes now suing the county and four officials over his March arrest.
An attorney for Holmes, whose full name is Robert Ted Holmes, filed the civil rights complaint Friday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
The suit alleges Holmes' arrest March 12 on charges of impersonating an officer and resisting arrest caused him to lose in the June primary election and violated his civil rights.
A Nye County Sheriff's Office press release on the arrest said an out-of-state law enforcement officer who was in Pahrump on official business was approached by Holmes at the Pahrump Nugget casino.
(Click below for complete story)
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/oct/18/former-nye-sheriffs-candidate-sues-over-march-arre/
