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Nye County lets brothel owner stay in business, despite bribery confession
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Joe Richards
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
PAHRUMP -- Nye County regulators have agreed to let brothel owner Maynard "Joe" Richards stay in business, even after he admitted bribing one of their own.
Citing Richards' otherwise "unblemished" record stretching back 30 years, the Nye County Licensing and Liquor Board voted unanimously Tuesday to let him keep his licenses as long as he pays a $50,000 fine and stays out of trouble for the next four years.
The board, which includes the five-member County Commission and the sheriff, could have revoked Richards' brothel license, effectively shutting down his bordello off U.S. Highway 95 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Instead, County Commissioner Joni Eastley argued that Richards should be allowed to stay in business because he poses no threat to the community.
But the brothel owner did not escape completely unscathed. Eastley recommended the fine and a probationary period to last until 2014, though she did not spell out the terms of the probation.
"Mr. Richards has admitted to committing a felony," she said. "The board cannot ignore that."
Eastley said she considered at least a temporary closure of Richards' Cherry Patch 2 brothel, but she rejected that idea because it would hurt his employees.
"If we put him out of business, those people are out of work," she said.
Bobbi Davis, who owns the Shady Lady Ranch brothel in central Nye County, said her competitor got off easy.
"They should have taken his license," Davis said. "They keep telling us what a privilege this license is. Now they let a convicted felon keep his?
"If they're not on the take, they're sure making everyone think they are," she said.
The board also voted Tuesday to let Richards keep his liquor license for the castle-themed strip club he built at one of Pahrump's busier intersections.
Both votes were unanimous, with Lt. Frank Jarvis filling in for Sheriff Tony DeMeo, who removed himself from the case because of his inside knowledge of the FBI's investigation of Richards.
The brothel owner was indicted in 2006 on two felony counts of federal wire fraud after he paid then-Commissioner Candice Trummell $5,000 to rewrite an ordinance that had kept him from building a new house of prostitution at the south end of Pahrump.
Trummell was working as an FBI informant, and the meetings and phone conversations she secretly recorded made the government's case against Richards.
In March 2009, Richards pleaded guilty to one of the charges as part of a deal with federal prosecutors that spared him prison time.
He has since served a one-year term of so-called community confinement at a Las Vegas area halfway house.
Richards recently sold two of his three Nye County bordellos to Northern Nevada brothel owner Dennis Hof, whose Moonlite Bunny Ranch east of Carson City is featured in the HBO reality show "Cathouse."
Tuesday's hearing was conducted in fits and starts, and came after more than a year of procedural delays. The board recessed for about 30 minutes before each of Eastley's motions.
Richards did not attend the hearing. His attorney, Todd Leventhal, tried to halt the proceeding before it began, citing an unsettled legal challenge he filed in Pahrump District Court.
Leventhal said he was "not prepared to participate" in the hearing until District Judge Robert Lane rules on his challenge.
As it turned out, he didn't need to participate.
After the hearing, Leventhal said it would be up to Richards to decide whether to pay the $50,000 fine and move on or continue with the legal challenge.
If he does decide to fight, an angry Davis predicted another win for Richards.
"I always heard Nye County was crooked. I guess it's true," she said. "It's crooked as hell."
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.
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Oh, Good Grief. I can't believe the one that blame Harry Reid for everything in life. What's next? Blame him because your Cheerios got soggy?
It would have been awful to have hookers out of work.
What does this have to do with Reid? Besides, if Angle has her way, prostitution, gambling, booze, adultery, and cigarettes will be illegal. OK by me.
These are Dirty Harry's kind of people.
This shows a new level of arrogance and corruption in Nye County.
MAYBE THIS IS WHERE HARRY WILL END UP!!!!!!!!! Can you see him running a brothel??!!! Where else can you live, commit a felony, get a slap on the back, pay a liitle fine and continue as usual, why of course, Nevada with Harry as the teacher
To Bobbi Davis:
Where have you been all of your life ? Your statements about Nye County have been common knowledge for over 40 years that I know of. Wake up and face reality !
What is up with no one following the rules, they have all these different committee and different boards that are set up to keep a standard and then when someone does something wrong they should be punished but what it comes down to it, is all about the money, our government does it every day they rob from us, because they want to line their pockets what or who are these rules made for, I am sure that there are other brothel owners that have slide by because the board does not want to follow their own rules. I know some ladies that have worked for Joe Richards before and he is far from being fair, so if it is to save someone job that is a joke. These people on these committees are only out for themselves, why do we have rules, the people that we give or elect, they do not follow the rules, and how does that make us look as a nation. Just so that you know that Frank Jarvis is one of the good guys, and Sheriff Joe, we need more people who will take a stand and follow the rules.
If he was an ex-felon applying for a license would they have given him one? No way!