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.

That doesn’t satisfy Sheriff Tony DeMeo. “He is not giving us $20,000 out of his own pocket. That’s an illusion. He is quitting early. He is unemployed. People found guilty of a traffic violation get more of a sanction than he got. For a seat belt violation you have to pay $90 some dollars. He paid nothing for violating the public trust,” DeMeo continued.

The sheriff said he’d never witnessed anything quite like Friday’s hearing.

“Mr. Bob Beckett committed felonies. He committed misconduct in office. This is outrageous. In my 37-years of law enforcement experience I have never seen something like this … where he got off with nothing.”

DeMeo said negotiations are part of the justice system, but “I didn’t think it was going to be negotiated to nothing. I was speechless at the outcome. I couldn’t believe it.”

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.”

DeMeo blames Beckett for the perception his office and the DA’s office do not and cannot work together. He said nothing is farther from the truth.

“Mr. Bob Beckett embarrassed the people who work for him and he gave people — including the criminals out there — the impression there is a disconnect between our offices.

“Deputy district attorneys come to the sheriff’s office on almost a daily basis, talking to our investigators to keep our cases moving forward,” said the sheriff.

“Even with the problems that Mr. Bob Beckett created by his misconduct and by abusing the system and blaming the cops for his wrongdoing and not taking responsibility, we still got work done,” DeMeo added.

It is unclear who in the district attorney’s office will be in charge once Beckett makes his exit.

DeMeo said even Nye County’s juvenile offenders are made to apologize for their criminal offenses. Beckett made no such apology Friday.

“How about taking some responsibility for the misconduct,” asked DeMeo.

“If anybody believes that people of a certain status get preferential treatment, Mr. Bob Beckett is the poster child for that because that’s exactly what he did.”