HORACE LANGFORD, JR. / PVT Darrin Tuck, Sr. addresses the media after his son’s preliminary hearing yesterday afternoon. Darrin Tuck, Jr. was bound over to Fifth District Court to face a single charge of possession of child pornography. Advertisement

Darrin Tuck Jr., of Pahrump, will be bound over to District Court to face a single charge of possession of child pornography.

He is scheduled to appear in Fifth District Court Dec. 3.

Tuck turned over the videotape of a 2-year-old girl being sexually assaulted to the Nye County Sheriff's Office in September.

The videotape ultimately led to the identification and capture of the alleged perpetrator, Chester Arthur Stiles, earlier this month.

The victim, now 7, was found in Las Vegas safe and happy with her mother.

Tuck's legal problems, however, stem primarily from the sheriff's office allegation that he held on to the tape for a number of months prior to turning it over to authorities.

Chris Rasmussen, Tuck's defense attorney, maintained that Tuck was using methamphetamine at the time and as a result was "paranoid" about law enforcement.

Tuck testified at a probation hearing last month that turning the tape over was part of his efforts to clean up.

He relinquished the tape while enrolled in drug court.

Sheriff's Det. David Boruchowitz testified at the hearing that Tuck called him on his cell phone and met him in person to turn over the tape.

The detective also testified that Tuck's story as to how long he had the tape, changed a number of times.

A long-time family friend, James N. Childs, testified at the hearing that Tuck had told him about the tape in May.

Childs said he told Tuck to turn the tape over to police, and "he agreed it was the right thing to do."

Rasmussen attempted to subpoena Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo to testify because of statements DeMeo had made to the media during the investigation.

"He made statements to the media before Stiles was captured, and after Stiles was captured, that Mr. Tuck had some kind of personal relationship with Stiles, that he was personally investigating it, when he had no information himself that Tuck and Stiles were related," Rasmussen argued.

When Justice of the Peace Tina Brisebill questioned the relevance of that line of questioning, the defense attorney argued that DeMeo's testimony could help prove that Tuck did not have any criminal intent in keeping the tape.

The subpoena was denied, however, with Brisebill ruling it was vague in that it was not personally addressed to DeMeo, but to the sheriff's office and said "Attention: Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo."

Furthermore, Brisebill pointed out that the subpoena was actually for documents, not for DeMeo to appear personally.

"This is a willful disobeyance of the subpoena," Rasmussen countered. "He's not here, he's right next door. When he was served ... and told he might have to testify, he was very afraid of it ... He said he didn't want to testify and he'd be a hostile witness if he testified, and my investigator will testify to that. He didn't want to testify and that's why he's not here. Not because the subpoena is vague."

Rasmussen then motioned for a continuance since DeMeo was the defense's only witness, which Brisebill summarily denied.

Prosecutor Joseph Muckleroy argued that the testimony given by Boruchowitz and Childs spoke for itself.

"By burying this tape, it shows several things," Muckleroy said. "One is that he knew the criminal nature of it, he understood that, and he was also exercising his possession."

"This case is ridiculous," Rasmussen retorted. "It's turning it into a circus. You have elected officials going on 'Dr. Phil' and 'Nancy Grace' to national networks to talk about this case."

The defense attorney argued that the length of time Tuck held on to the tape was "a red herring. That's not even the issue. Mr. Tuck did everything we want somebody in this county to do," Rasmussen said.

"He's a tweaker. He was on drugs, he's messed up. He wasn't thinking in his right mind." Rasmussen also attempted to discredit Childs' testimony as well.

"You saw Childs. He's kind of squirrely himself. He's got a drug problem. There's two drug addicts talking about what to do with this tape."

Outside the courtroom, Darrin Tuck Sr. told a bevy of media, "My son is a hero ... We want this to go to trial because we think a jury will find him not guilty."