Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said allegations he has continually misrepresented Darren Tuck are not true.

"The majority of our office's statements have come from Tuck," DeMeo said. "Then his lawyers come out on TV and make contradictory statements."

Tuck is the 26-year-old resident of Pahrump who turned a videotape of a 3-year-old girl being sexually assaulted over to the sheriff's office.

Tom Gibson and Harry Keuhn, Tuck's lawyers, said earlier this week they were preparing to file a gag order against the sheriff's office and DeMeo due to a number of statements made about their client.

Both lawyers maintain that DeMeo's statements have irrevocably ruined any chance of Tuck getting a fair trial in Nye County should charges ever be pressed in relation to the videotape.

In the meantime, the search for the man reported to appear on the videotape, assaulting the girl, Chester Arthur Stiles, continues.

DeMeo said Gibson and Kuehn have muddied the waters for Tuck.

"If anyone should have a gag order, it's Tuck and his two lawyers, because they're the ones making contradictory statements," DeMeo said. "There were so many misstatements about this case by Tuck's lawyers, I didn't even know if they were talking about the same case."

One issue of contention is whether or not Tuck showed the videotape to other people prior to turning it over to authorities.

DeMeo has said his office was contacted by people who said they saw a portion of the actual film.

Tuck's lawyers, however, maintain Tuck showed the tape only to people while he was asking for advice about what to do with it, and never played the footage for anyone.

"All of that will be presented in court," DeMeo responded.

The sheriff also emphasized that it was not his office that leaked information that Tuck had failed a scheduled polygraph to the press, alleging instead it was Kuehn and Gibson.

The defense lawyers said they found out themselves through the press.

"I was getting calls from the press asking me why (Tuck) failed 15 minutes after the test," Gibson said.

The sheriff also criticized Kuehn for appearing on the "Nancy Grace" show and, in DeMeo's words, "undermining our office's investigation and calling Pahrump a slum."

Kuehn admitted that he told the show's host Pahrump had a lower socio-economic status on average and that there was a meth problem in Pahrump, but said he felt it was absolutely necessary to go on TV.

DeMeo himself has also turned up on several national shows, including a segment of "Larry King Live."

"We had to go on to rebut the diarrhea coming out of his mouth," Kuehn said. "The sheriff, by his inability to say 'no comment,' has biased the entire jury pool of Nye County."

The sheriff, however, emphasized that he had acknowledged the importance of Tuck ultimately turning over the tape to his office.

"I've always said I must commend him for eventually turning the tape in," DeMeo said.

"All our concern, throughout the course of the entire investigation, was to find the little girl and to find the suspect."