HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Nye County Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos, at right, pauses outside Pahrump Justice Court after his case was remanded to district court. Looking on is public defender Tom Gibson. Advertisement

Nye County Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos was bound over to district court for trial on bribery charges by visiting Justice of the Peace Steven Dahl Friday.

A trial date was set for 9 a.m., Oct. 27.

Defense attorney Joseph Sciscento said Liakopoulos' offer to vote for the county half-cent sales tax increase in exchange for a favorable Pahrump Town Board vote appointing his wife as curator of a veteran's museum was a normal way politicians do business.

But prosecutor Conrad Hafen, from the Nevada Attorney General's Office, said the difference is Liakpoulos was advocating for a job for a family member.

"If you read that statute strictly, I have seen hundreds of felonies committed up in the state legislature every year," Judge Dahl said. But he agreed with the attorney general's office, that in this case, Liakopoulos interjected the possibility of rewards for his family.

Pahrump Town Board Chairman Laurayne Murray testified she first received a call from Liakopoulos last July or August, when a town board agenda item was pending on the leasing of a building at the Chief Tecopa Cemetery to Liakopoulos' veterans group, SSI.

"I told him immediately that I wasn't going to support that. It was my position that property that belonged to the town should remain public," Murray testified.

Around that same time, Pahrump passed a resolution urging Nye County commissioners to pass a half-cent sales tax initiative, which came up in a subsequent phone call from Liakopoulos to Murray.

Murray's testimony indicated Liakopoulos initially leaned toward supporting the sales tax increase. Murray testified Liakopoulos told her, "Even though his campaign was based on a platform of not raising taxes, he had discovered that the sales tax initiative had been favorably voted on in his district."

Liakopoulos told Murray she should support his wife being the curator of the veteran's museum.

After the board tabled the selection of an advisory board to oversee the veterans memorial project because it wasn't advertised properly, Murray testified, "Mr. Liakopoulos contacted me again and said that I needed to support his wife being the curator of the museum in order that he could support the sales tax initiative."

Murray said she told Liakopoulos she would support Jenny Liakopoulos, since she heard good reports about her from the Veterans of Foreign Wars ladies auxiliary.

When Murray told Liakopoulos she was only one vote on the town board and couldn't guarantee his wife would get the appointment, Liakopoulos replied, "'You're the chairperson, you can make it happen or I can't vote for the sales tax.' He insisted that I do what he said or we wouldn't get the vote."

Sciscento repeatedly made the point that Liakopoulos used the word "could" support the sales tax, not that he "would," a semantic argument that led to state objections Sciscento was getting argumentative with the witness.

Sciscento also criticized Murray for waiting from July until Dec. 19 to notify the sheriff's department.

"I still had faith his 'could' answer would come true and that he would support it," Murray said.

Sciscento also argued Murray could have had a personal interest in passage of the half-cent sales tax, since her husband was a firefighter-emergency medical technician.

Proceeds of the half-cent sales tax increase were to be split equally between the sheriff's department and county fire departments.

Sciscento asked whether former town board member Dan Sprouse had agreed to make the motion to hire Liakopoulos and Murray would make the second.

Murray said as chairman she doesn't make motions or second them.

On cross-examination from the defense, Murray repeated a phrase from her conversation with Liakopoulos: "His comment was, 'If she's not the curator, the sales tax initiative is dead in the water.'"

Liakopoulos, along with commissioners Joni Eastley and Roberta "Midge" Carver, voted against the sales tax initiative, dooming it to a 3-2 defeat at a Dec. 19 county commission meeting.

Sciscento also tried to link Murray with an ongoing recall attempt of Liakopoulos at that time. He said if Liakopoulos were replaced, proponents would have another shot at getting the sales tax increase passed with a new commissioner.

Sciscento claimed Murray had asked sheriff's detectives about whether the bribery charge was a felony, so Liakopoulos could be removed from office.

Murray also testified an unidentified resident knew about the bribe attempt, but wouldn't release the name, even in court. Judge Dahl said it wasn't essential to proving the state's case in the preliminary hearing.

Sciscento claimed Murray told former Pahrump Town Manager Dave Richards, "You made a deal with the devil."

Richards, the only other witness, returned from Hoonah, Alaska, to appear on the stand. Richards testified he first heard about Liakopoulos' request for a veterans museum with his wife as curator while hosting a television show with Liakopoulos.

During a luncheon at Mountain Falls Golf Club, Richards said Liakopoulos told him he talked with Murray about exchanging a favorable vote on the sales tax in exchange for his wife being appointed curator.

Richards' testified, "He asked me to call or talk to Laurayne Murray and tell her that he was serious, that in his conversation with her, Ms. Liakopoulos needed to be appointed to that position for his affirmative vote on the sales tax. He asked me to contact her."

Sciscento asked Richards: "Do you believe it's acceptable in government for two officials to trade votes? In other words, I'll vote for your project if you vote for my project?"

"Yes," Richards replied.

But on further questioning Richards said it wouldn't be appropriate to swap votes for each other's projects if it involved getting a family member a paid job with the town of Pahrump.

Sciscento emphasized Richards said "paid" position. He said the curator was a non-paid position.

Dahl threw out the second felony bribery count, which involved the conversation with Richards to pass the message along to Murray. But he remanded Liakopoulos to district court on the first felony bribery count, as well as the two misdemeanor counts of offering a reward for an appointment and grafting by a public officer.

Hafen cited a Nevada Supreme Court ruling in which just the offer of a favor, without money, still constituted bribery. Jenny Liakopoulos would still have the power of her position, he added.

Sciscento said he was surprised Murray wasn't charged as a co-conspirator, a question that's been widely raised in Pahrump.

Hafen said after the preliminary hearing that was his decision. He decided Murray was the one who came forward with the information to law enforcement. Hafen said he also needed Murray's testimony.

Sciscento complained in his closing arguments, "He committed the bribe by not voting the way she wanted him to vote. We wouldn't be here if he had voted for that sales tax."

Dahl also rejected Sciscento's argument that the veterans advisory board wasn't a public board.