HEIDI J. BERTOLINO / SPECIAL TO THE PVT Former Sheriff Wade A. Lieseke Jr., above, and incumbent Tony DeMeo, below, field questions during Friday's Tonopah candidates night. Advertisement

The Nye County sheriff's race usually tops the bill when residents gather to hear pitches from candidates running for office.

And in that vein, Sheriff Tony DeMeo and former Sheriff Wade Lieseke Jr. continued their bitter campaign during this past weekend's candidate forums.

DeMeo said that on his watch, since 2002 -- during a time when Pahrump's population grew by 24 percent -- crime has been reduced by 21 percent.

But DeMeo came under attack by Lieseke supporters in Tonopah Friday night for allegedly attempting to close the Tonopah and Beatty dispatch centers in 2004. DeMeo said Tonopah was never going to be closed, it was misinformation. The sheriff said he wanted to centralize the 911 dispatch system in Pahrump, noting Beatty and Amargosa Valley still don't have the service.

Lieseke claimed DeMeo was lying, that witnesses heard DeMeo talk about closing down those dispatch centers. A May 7, 2004, Pahrump Valley Times article reported DeMeo wanted to transfer dispatchers to Pahrump and reroute all 911 and sheriff's communication calls there. An SBC representative touted the advantage of a centralized dispatch system.

At the time, DeMeo said dispatchers couldn't be found to work in Tonopah, but Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley countered that the positions were only advertised twice in the Tonopah Times-Bonanza.

"I think that would've greatly affected public policy and certainly public safety, to have only one dispatch center in this entire, huge county," Lieseke told the Tonopah crowd Friday night.

DeMeo recalled steps he took to improve service in the northern county: transferring a detective from Pahrump to Tonopah; transferring investigative equipment to Tonopah so it doesn't have to be moved around from different substations with a delay of several hours, and locating three sheriff's department K-9 dogs in Tonopah not only to sniff for drugs but also cadavers during search and rescue operations.

DeMeo said he closed the Amargosa Valley sheriff's substation because Nye County's commissioners cut his budget.

Lieseke, sheriff for 12 years and a 22-year Nye County Sheriff's Office deputy, said he increased the number of deputies assigned to Amargosa Valley to two and kept the substation open. "If I am re-elected it will reopen and you will have those services."

During the Amargosa Valley candidates forum, Lieseke charged the sheriff's department budget, under DeMeo, increased from $9.5 million to just under $13 million, with an additional 22 officers.

DeMeo said his budget is about $12 million, up from $10.5 million last year due to deputy pay raises. He said Lieseke came into a budget hearing last year and told county commissioners the Nye County sheriff's department had too many personnel; Lieseke said afterwards he couldn't ever remember making that statement.

Lieseke's written statement mentioned how Nye County commissioners authorized DeMeo 13 deputies in the 2003-04 budget, while the Washoe County Sheriff's Department only adds one deputy each year.

While candidates talked about whether the department had too many deputies, retired peace officer Dan Pahnka complained about Amargosa Valley being reduced to one deputy.

DeMeo said there are normally three officers assigned to Amargosa Valley but one has been transferred to the Nevada Test Site and the third is on medical leave.

Lieseke said at the Tonopah gathering that it's an obligation for peace officers to live within their budget and implied DeMeo exceeded his budget by $1 million. DeMeo didn't respond to that charge.

Both candidates touted their tough stance against illegal drugs.

DeMeo told north county voters his officers even infiltrated the small town of Gabbs and made enough busts breaking up a drug ring there that they didn't have enough squad cars to transport all the suspects. When he took office, DeMeo recalled, there was the Central Nevada Task Force, which became the Scorpion anti-drug task force. But he added that constantly throwing drug users in jail is not the solution.

Lieseke told the audience in Amargosa Valley that the last year he was in office, the sheriff's department busted 38 drug labs, adding there's a big problem with drug use in that valley. In Tonopah, he complimented DeMeo for continuing the DARE and GREAT programs that were under way during his administration.

DeMeo fielded some more tough questions in Tonopah, Lieseke's home town where Lieseke won all four precincts during the Aug. 15 primary. DeMeo told one audience member a sexual assault victim in Pahrump was directed by a dispatcher to meet sheriff's deputies at a Rebel station on Basin Road and Highway 160 because it was a safe, well-lit location. He apologized if the sheriff's department appeared cold and callous in that case.

When it came to the multi-million dollar case filed against the sheriff's department for a Taser incident involving Pahrump resident Robert Smith, DeMeo said Smith told him three and a half years ago he was going to sue Nye County, well before the incident occurred.

DeMeo said Smith was combative, was handcuffed and taken by deputies to a hospital for his own protection during the Taser incident.

DeMeo said he has never been personally sued. But he said Lieseke has, for abusing his authority, and Nye County had to pay out $237,000 in March 2003. Lieseke said later he didn't know what suit DeMeo was talking about. DeMeo said he was referring to the settlement involving former animal control officer Frank Johnson, when Lieseke disregarded an arbitrator's decision to simply give Johnson a 10-day suspension.

But DeMeo received applause in Tonopah by stating that under his watch, no property or cattle have been seized by the federal government. He was referring to the late Wayne Hage, a rancher who had 100 cow-calf pairs seized in 1991 by federal officers.

"No one wants the federal government to remove their property," DeMeo said. "Property rights are near and dear to us. That is something given by the Constitution."