HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT A chained prisoner is escorted through the courthouse from the sheriff's office Thursday morning. Advertisement

The Pahrump courthouse corridors were cleared Thursday morning as two handcuffed and shackled prisoners shuffled into the Government Complex through the side door closest to the Nye County Sheriff's Office and entered temporary Justice Courtroom B, presided over by Justice of the Peace Kent Jasperson.

The defendants were brought into the emptied courthouse several minutes apart, accompanied by court bailiffs and NCSO deputies.

Guards from High Desert Prison were also on the security detail, as one of the prisoners was from their facility.

Clearing the corridors is the new protocol for allowing defendants in custody into the temporary courtroom, since there is no direct entry to Jasperson's court from the Pahrump Detention Center.

Jasperson is quite satisfied with the arrangement, saying, "People have the constitutional right to be seen in court."

However, Sheriff Tony DeMeo is seeing red, saying the situation poses a threat to the public that could cost the county millions of dollars in lawsuits.

Just before entering his courtroom, Jasperson said, "I have a full case load Monday through Thursday with a lighter number of cases on Friday. I believe that another judge is needed here desperately to alleviate the backlog.

"The sheriff's office didn't want to allow any defendants in custody to be brought into an unsecured area, but they will be in chains. I am just glad we were able to work this out. It takes all of us to make it work."

DeMeo does not see the situation as "worked out."

"Some of the detainees moving through the courthouse have committed high felonies," said DeMeo, by phone from Carson City. "There are family members of their victims in the courthouse. It's a potentially dangerous situation. If they try to assault a detainee, other people in the courthouse could be caught in a crossfire. Why can't they schedule non-in-custody cases into the temporary courtroom?" said DeMeo.

"There are hundreds of cases where the defendant is not in custody. There are three dozen people in some kind of custody right now. It's ludicrous to think they can't schedule around those cases, rather than disrupt the courtrooms by declaring recesses in all three courtrooms and pulling out the bailiffs to help clear the courthouse so an in-custody defendant can be transported to the temporary courtroom.

"The Honorable Judge Davis, who is the most senior judge in the county, is not scheduling in-custody cases in there.

"As the sheriff, I am responsible for the safety of the detainees. The bailiffs do not have custody of the prisoners in the courtroom. My deputies do. Those people will not leave the walls of the detention center unless I am assured the courthouse area is secure from the victims' family members.

"The judges are not the ones who will be sued when something goes wrong. The sheriff's office will take the blame and the taxpayers will be paying the law suits."

According to the minutes from the Oct. 21, 2008 county commissioners' meeting, Gary Hollis made a motion to approve the building of the temporary courtroom "with the condition in-custody inmates not be transported through the existing courthouse to the temporary court."