By MARK WAITE

PVT

Dozens of requests to disqualify the Nye County district attorney’s office and recuse judges from hearing cases in which Sheriff’s Dep. David Boruchowitz is involved have begun to hit the courts.

The requests, by public defenders working for the Gibson and Kuehn law firm, claim the DA’s office should have provided them with evidence under the rules of discovery to back up claims by DA Bob Beckett that Boruchowitz is a liar and perjurer.

Beckett and Boruchowitz became involved in a highly-publicized spat after Boruchowitz arrested Beckett May 5 for misusing funds in the Bad Check Program, after which Attorney Conrad Claus, a prosecutor appointed by Beckett, filed 25 counts against Boruchowitz on May 20 for a variety of charges including false arrest and oppression under color of office.

The first case in which the motion to disqualify the DA’s office was heard involved murder suspect Timothy Liapes, accused in the March 2009 death of Robert Humphrey. Attorney Harry Kuehn referred to Beckett’s published statement that “we have affidavits of perjury against Boruchowitz.”

Beckett went on to say in a Pahrump Valley Times interview that he had no faith in any criminal case in which Boruchowitz was involved, Kuehn’s motion said.

In response, Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo referred to the order issued by visiting Judge Robert Estes, in which Estes said documents he reviewed weren’t affidavits of perjury and were not relevant to the Liapes case.

Mere allegations of the untruthfulness of a police officer is not exculpatory evidence — evidence to clear Boruchowitz from fault, Estes noted.

Kuehn’s motion said Liapes couldn’t be prosecuted by a suspected liar. Liapes is scheduled for a status hearing July 26.

While both 5th District Judges Robert Lane and John Davis declined to grant the motion to withdraw the DA’s office from cases and didn’t recuse themselves, attorneys for Gibson and Kuehn note Joseph Patrick Lamoureux’s case has been continued until a calendar call Jan. 11, or after Beckett leaves office.

Lamoureux, a former Army Reserve sergeant, was arrested for a shooting incident at Terrible’s Lakeside Casino Sept. 19, 2008. Sheriff’s Dep. Eric Murphy was injured during the gun battle.

Lane denied four requests for withdrawal of the DA and recusal of the judge Monday.

In his motion opposing the request to disqualify the DA’s office in the Stephen Labrum burglary case, Deputy District Attorney Wesley White wrote:

“It appears that many defendants in Nye County and their attorneys view the entire Beckett vs. Boruchowitz matter as a once in a lifetime opportunity to get what they most desire and seek: the obstruction, obfuscation, barrier-raising, obstacle-inducing and indefinite delay of each and every case where their client faces prosecution in a case that Boruchowitz is a witness.”

White said the public defenders’ motions don’t include case precedents. He said many trials normally involve attacks on the credibility of prosecution witnesses.

“The longer this case lingers and spins its wheels on the treadmill of our legal system, the harder it becomes for the state to obtain justice,” White wrote.

Tom Gibson, a partner in Gibson and Kuehn, said his firm could file the motion on as many as 160 cases in which Boruchowitz was involved. Kuehn said it would be more like 50 to 100 cases that involve Boruchowitz.

“So far, what the judges have been doing, they’re being more conservative, saying the DA’s office is still on it, but we’re going to continue on it until Beckett is out of office,” Gibson said.

While the old saying “justice delayed is justice denied” might apply, Gibson said his firm didn’t have a choice.

Public defenders may have to call Beckett to the stand to question Boruchowitz’ credibility. It would create a predicament for prosecutors from the DA’s office to question the boss, he said.

“Liapes and Lamoureux both said, ‘You know what? Rather than have these morons prosecute us, we would rather have a new DA prosecute us and go from there,’” Kuehn said.

Kuehn said attorneys for his firm obtained 17 documents Tuesday that Beckett said show Boruchowitz was a liar. They will be introduced in court at a later date.

The defense will ask for an investigator to consider every allegation of lies, not only by Beckett but others who claim he’s a liar, Kuehn said. He called it a rare opportunity where a DA called a lead investigator untrustworthy.

Kuehn spoke while awaiting a decision from Davis Tuesday on two more requests to disqualify the DA’s office and recuse the judge from hearing cases.

Davis sided more with the defense requests than did Lane, who feels a delaying tactic is being used. On Tuesday, Davis continued a case against Benjamin Ashley Shirley for maintaining a place for the sale of controlled substances to March 11, 2011, to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Davis ordered a special prosecutor be appointed in the child abuse and neglect with substantial bodily harm case against Bianca Enedina Razo-Pina, who is being held on $1 million bond after the death of her 2-1/2-month-old daughter Edith July 20, 2009.

Kuehn argued it would be a legal impossibility for a deputy DA to cross-examine his boss, the DA, for fear of losing his job.

But Nye County Chief Prosecutor Kirk Vitto told Davis he would be able to cross-examine Beckett, confident that the DA wouldn’t fire him and would understand he was doing his job.