Nye County DA meets with Beatty residents

BEATTY — Nye County District Attorney Angela Bello met with Beatty residents Oct. 9, at the close of an uneventful Beatty Town Advisory Board meeting, to address some of their concerns and answer questions.

“I understand you have some concerns because crime is rising. It is everywhere,” said Bello. She understood that some Beatty residents felt that there was a lack of prosecution, but she said she didn’t see it.

She said that some cases do not get prosecuted because they do not have enough evidence to meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. She also said that her office did not investigate, and whatever evidence there is comes from the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.

Many people complained that people who are arrested are back out on the street the next day, causing more trouble. Bello answered that the right to post bail is built into the Constitution, and “you have to respect the Constitution.”

Another complaint was that many more serious offenses are reduced to misdemeanors. The district attorney said, “Sometimes it doesn’t go the victim’s way. What you may think is a reasonable charge may not be what we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“Plea bargaining is a fact of life — always has been,” she added. “If every case went to trial, it would shut the district attorney’s office down.” She said that her assistants are already handling four times the recommended caseload.

When asked whether citizens had any input in the process of deciding what charges to bring, Bello replied that her office encourages victim input. Victims can go to her office’s website and fill out a victim’s packet.

Cases can also be complicated and can take a long time to go to court and be settled. She mentioned that there is one case that she inherited when she came into office that is still working its way through the system after three-and-a-half years.

Juvenile cases can be particularly difficult, she noted, saying that “juveniles are not charged with a crime, per se.”

Some people complained of difficulty communicating with the district attorney’s office.

Larry and Cindy Wentzloff said the secretary in the office wouldn’t put them through, and Diane McGinnis backed them up, saying that the Beatty Museum had had similar problems.

Bello, who had said, “If you have concerns, call me,” said she had was having a hard time understanding that this was happening. It was not what she expected from her staff.

Some people wanted to know if there was some way the town or Beatty citizens could receive information about cases from Beatty that were filed and how they were progressing.

Bello said that there is nothing in the case numbers of the thousands of cases her office handles that identifies where they come from. She also said that it could be complicated when an arrest is made in one town, and the victim is in another. She thought about the idea of possibly adding some kind of code, but did not know how or if it might be practical.

After a comment that the small town needed an advocate, she said, “That would be me.”

She said that Beatty was not being treated like a small town or differently than any other place.

Board member Kelly Carroll complained of “an influx of Pahrumpians.”

He said that “individuals who have been causing havoc in our community are imports from Pahrump,” and that they had evidently “been coached to get out of town” and had come to Beatty, having had housing secured for them. Several people in the audience concurred with his statement.

Richard Stephens is a freelance writer living in Beatty.