MARK WAITE / PVT Former Nye County Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos, at right, and public defender Tom Gibson leave 5th District Court after the guilty verdict. RELATED STORY Prosecutor hopes verdict will encourage honesty Advertisement

Former Nye County Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos was found guilty on all counts in his bribery trial Wednesday by a jury in 5th District Court.

Liakopoulos was charged with a single felony count of asking or receiving a bribe by an executive or administrative officer, a misdemeanor count of offering a reward for an appointment and a misdemeanor count of grafting by a public officer.

"This case is about government, those we elect to rule over us and the standards that should apply," prosecutor Conrad Hafen told the jury in his closing arguments. He said Liakopoulos was willing to sell his vote for a tax increase.

Gibson argued such deal-making was common in politics and political leaders often had a personal gain involved in their votes. "Why go after a person wanting a volunteer position that's unpaid?" Gibson asked the jury in his closing arguments.

Hafen pointed out that while the position involved no pay, it was nonetheless a public office.

Fifth District Judge Robert Lane scheduled the sentencing for 9 a.m. Aug. 24.

Liakopoulos, who served two years of his four-year term before stepping down Dec. 31, 2008, was accused of calling former Pahrump Town Board Chairman Laurayne Murray and offering to vote for a half-cent county sales tax increase if the board would appoint his wife curator of a veteran's memorial museum.

His wife wasn't appointed to that position. Liakopoulos voted with the majority of the Nye County Commission to reject the half-cent sales tax increase two months later.

The seven woman, five man jury deliberated for just over two hours.

Murray testified Liakopoulos called her on four occasions between July and October 2007.

The first time, before a July 24, 2007, Pahrump Town Board meeting, Murray said Liakopoulos called her at home and asked if she would support a request by his organization, Support Soldiers In Need (SSI), for the lease on the veteran's memorial. Murray said she wouldn't support a private organization leasing a public building.

Liakopoulos also asked if Murray could give him information to help him understand the half-cent sales tax initiative, which was approved by voters in November 2006 and passed by the state legislature in June 2007.

Two days before an Aug. 14, 2007, town board meeting in which the panel considered the appointment of an advisory board to oversee the veteran's memorial and appointment of a curator, Liakopoulos lobbied for his wife's appointment.

Murray testified Liakopoulos informed her he found out the sales tax initiative passed in every precinct in his district.

"He discovered that he could consider supporting the sales tax initiative," Murray said.

Before the Oct. 9, 2007, town board meeting, where the board was scheduled to take action on both items, Murray said she told Liakopoulos she was only one vote on the town board and couldn't guarantee his wife's appointment.

Murray said Liakopoulos replied, "You're the chairperson of the board, you can make that happen."

Murray testified she told Liakopoulos she thought his wife, Jenny Liakopoulos, was hard working, committed and well qualified for the job. She turned out to be the only applicant for the curator position.

This time, Liakopoulos told Murray he felt the sales tax increase was a good thing to do, according to her testimony.

"He discovered that his voters had supported it in his district, and that if I could get his wife as curator, that he would support the sales tax," Murray said.

During a fourth conversation, a few days before the Oct. 9, 2007, meeting, Murray testified Liakopoulos sounded more aggressive.

"What he said was that his wife was very distraught and very upset and very anxious about the curator's position, and that she needed to be the curator on the advisory board and that it was important I make that happen," Murray said.

"He said that his wife needed to get the curator position or the sales tax initiative was dead in the water," she said.

Liakopoulos' attorney, public defender Tom Gibson, repeatedly attempted to show there was no formal deal and there wasn't technically even a position of curator, comparing it to a lump of clay before an artist completes his sculpture.

In her testimony, Murray admitted at the time, "I thought it was wrong, I didn't have any idea it was criminal." That was testimony Gibson seized on in his arguments.

Murray said while she offered to speak on behalf of Liakopoulos' wife for the position, she didn't have an expectation Liakopoulos would vote for the sales tax increase.

Former Pahrump Town Manager Dave Richards returned from Hoonah, Alaska, to testify he met with Liakopoulos over lunch at Mountain Falls Golf Resort, where Liakopoulos told him about his conversation with Murray.

"He said not only would the sales tax not be approved but all hell would fall on Pahrump if his wife was not approved," Richards testified. Richards said he was asked to contact Murray and tell her Liakopoulos was serious about getting his wife appointed to the position.

Richards admitted under Gibson's cross-examination Murray was pretty adamant about getting the half-cent sales tax passed.

Half of the $2 million annual proceeds would go to county fire departments, and Murray's husband works for the Pahrump Valley Fire- Rescue Service, but Lane wouldn't allow into evidence a previous ethics complaint against Murray for participating in contract negotiations.

Richards also testified he was surprised Liakopoulos was arrested "because I didn't see anything wrong with it."

Murray denied she was interested in Liakopoulos' county commission seat, as Gibson had claimed in his opening arguments.

Murray and Richards testified they didn't contact the sheriff's department. Det. Dave Boruchowitz testified he was told to investigate the allegations after Capt. Bill Becht noticed a story in the Pahrump Valley Times with a quote by Murray after the failure of the sales tax vote.

Lane said Gibson failed to prove his theory of selective prosecution of Liakopoulos because he was a Republican.

When testimony ended Tuesday afternoon, Liakopoulos considered taking the stand but after consulting with Gibson decided against it.