AG declines to prosecute DeMeo

The Nevada Attorney General’s office has declined to pursue charges against Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo after it was reportedly determined there was insufficient evidence to show the elected official willfully overspent his budget during the last fiscal year.

The Nye County District Attorney’s office was issued a letter on June 27 stating that based on a review of the evidence from the previous fiscal year and various interviews with county personnel there was insufficient evidence to show DeMeo knowingly intended to spend more money than he had been allocated by the county for his department.

“I reviewed the materials you provided regarding the misdemeanor prosecution of Nye County Sheriff, Anthony DeMeo, for a willful violation of NRS 354.626 during FY 2012. We obtained a copy of the Independent Auditor’s Report for FY 2012, records from the Nevada Department of Taxation, and interviewed various Nye County officials. Based on the review, I must decline to prosecute due to a lack of sufficient evidence of intent,” Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto wrote in a letter to District Attorney Brian Kunzi last month.

Prosecution of the sheriff was first sought by the Board of County Commissioners last October when they voted 4-0, with one member absent, to refer DeMeo to the AG’s office after he reportedly went more than $1 million over his budget, which is a violation of state law.

In April, the AG’s office confirmed it had received the case. DeMeo and other county officials were subsequently interviewed about the alleged misdemeanor offense before Masto decided to decline further action.

When called for comment Friday afternoon, DeMeo said he would defer to his attorney, Adam Levine, for comment on the matter.

Levine said he was not surprised the attorney general decided not to pursue charges. He said the over-expenditure was due in part to the county budgeting for more members of the Nye County Sheriff’s Office staff to take furlough days, despite the fact those unpaid days off had never been bargained for with the local police union, the Nye County Law Enforcement Association.

“We believe the reason the attorney general’s office closed the case was one, the county budgeted the sheriff’s office for furloughs without it ever having been negotiated with NCLEA, which was improper on the part of the county, and two, in May and June, the (county) comptroller’s office gave the sheriff’s office inaccurate financial reports, which falsely claimed the sheriff’s office had not yet used up its fully allocated budget,” Levine said.

He added that he believed Kunzi knew or should have known the sheriff’s office’s budget was constructed incorrectly concerning the amount of personnel required to take furlough days, as he is in charge of the county’s collective bargaining.

“I believe the DA’s office knew or should have known that the sheriff’s office was not being properly budgeted for its contractual obligations since it was the DA who took over all of the collective bargaining on behalf of Nye County. Furthermore, we tried to bring this information to the attention of the Board of County Commissioners at the closed session back in October 2012, but remarkably the recording of the meeting shut off shortly after I informed the commissioners present that we had emails showing there was no willful expenditures of funds beyond the budget,” Levine said.

Kunzi disagreed that the sheriff’s office was mis-budgeted, stating he advised the sheriff personally on several occasions that he needed to cut spending in other places to account for the furloughs or to request additional funding before it became an issue.

“The sheriff himself knew about the furloughs because I personally advised Sheriff DeMeo at the beginning of the budget year and several times during the year that furloughs were calculated for his budget and that he needed to absorb those amounts or request additional funding from the Board of County Commissioners,” Kunzi said in an email Friday. “The sheriff chose to furlough only his non-street personnel, but I am not aware of any attempt to obtain any other additional funding. The amount of the furloughs would have been a few hundred thousand dollars and could not be the reason he overspent his budget by $1.2 million dollars.

“All any of us can do is advise someone of the consequences. Whether that advice is followed is beyond my control.”

The DA further added that the only reason the case was submitted to the attorney general in the first place was because county commissioners felt they had no other option to deal with the sheriff’s finances.

“The county commissioners were frustrated that the sheriff continues to overrun his budget, which is the sole reason the (county) employees had to be forced to take furloughs the past two years. The commissioners chose to exercise the only option available to deal with this problem by requesting me to refer this matter to the attorney general for prosecution,” he said. “The attorney general invested a tremendous amount of time on this matter and I understand the concerns about the level of willfulness necessary to successfully prosecute this type of action. Unfortunately, as sad as it may seem, even being grossly negligent in the handling of one’s public duty does not constitute intent to commit a crime.”