DA arrested on fraud charges

http://www.rgj.com/article/20100505/NEWS07/100505027/1321/news

By KEN RITTER • Associated Press Writer • May 5, 2010

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Nye County district attorney was arrested Wednesday on felony embezzlement, fraud and public misconduct charges stemming from a probe of the finances in the bad-check unit he controlled, the sheriff’s office said.

District Attorney Bob Beckett, 49, was booked at the county jail in Pahrump and appeared before Justice of the Peace Tina Brisebill, who set a July 26 court date and ordered Beckett freed without bail, Nye County sheriff’s Capt. Bill Becht said. Pahrump is about 60 miles west of Las Vegas. snip

Beckett, a Republican, has claimed politics spurred the investigation. He is seeking a fifth term in November and is being challenged by a deputy Nevada state attorney general, two deputy Nye County prosecutors, the Libertarian Party’s 1992 candidate for vice president of the United States and a Clark County Family Court judge who was removed from the bench after a sex harassment scandal.