District attorney pays private investigator to look into complaint against sheriff

At the latest Board of Eureka County Commissioners meeting, Eureka Sheriff Jesse Watts placed his badge on the commissioners’ desk and said, “If you want it, it’s yours. March of 2026 is the filing for sheriff, and I’ll pay your entry fee if you want my office.”

He clarified during the meeting this was not an official resignation, but a response to the recent backlash Watts has been facing after the district attorney’s office paid Spencer Investigations, a private investigation company based in Reno, to look into allegations Watts was said to have made against a Eureka resident. 

According to the investigation report, Watts allegedly told an employee and the employee’s mother that a Eureka resident raped a woman in 2019. 

However, a witness who was present during the night of the alleged assault, as well as the woman who said she had been assaulted, both told investigators they did not know who this resident was, according to the report.

The resident told Spencer Investigations he did not know why Watts was claiming the resident had assaulted the woman, who has since moved away from Eureka, and he had never sensed any hostility from the sheriff before this incident. However, when the resident became aware of the claims Watts was making against him, he filed a complaint with the district attorney.

Watts was not named as one of the people interviewed in the investigation and, in a Facebook post, later called the investigation slanted. In the same post, Watts also acknowledged the conversation that sparked the investigation did take place between him and his employee.

Watts did not respond to the Eureka Sentinel’s request for comment. He said during the commission meeting this is one of several investigations the commissioners, the district attorney and other county staff have conducted into his office since he became sheriff.

“The day I got sworn in, the one thing I hoped we would do was work together and that has not happened,” Watts said. “The stress that I as the sheriff have went through is disgusting because people won’t sit down at the table and communicate.”

Watts said the stress these investigations have put on him have contributed to his recent divorce, suicide contemplations and overall mental health. 

If the recently released investigation report is proven to be true, Watts could also face misdemeanor charges.

Nevada state law considers public officers knowingly making false statements in an official capacity a gross misdemeanor. Penalties include less than a year  in jail and/or $2,000 in fines. However, it has not yet been determined in an official capacity if Watts’ statements were false or if they were made in an official capacity.

It is also illegal in Nevada for a public officer to disclose the identity or likeness of a victim of sexual assault to anyone other than the defendant or the defendant’s attorney, a person who is directly involved in the investigation, prosecution or defense of the case, a person specifically named in a court order or a nonprofit organization or public agency approved to receive the information pursuant. Violating this law is considered a misdemeanor.

The punishment for a misdemeanor in Nevada is imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by both fine and imprisonment, unless the statute in force at the time of commission of such misdemeanor prescribed a different penalty.

The woman confirmed with Spencer Investigations that she was at minimum a victim of sexual assault. She moved away after the incident and decided not to press charges against the man who she said assaulted her. She told investigators being named to people uninvolved in the alleged assault made her feel hurt and violated while forcing her to relive the incident again.

Eureka County District Attorney Ted Beutel told the Sentinel on Tuesday he considers Watts’ actions “unlawful,” “unethical” and “malicious.”

“Any individual in elected office, or endowed with the powers of a law enforcement officer, knows better,” Beutel said in an email.

“Add to those transgressions his recent pronouncements before the county commissioners during a public meeting that he suffers stress, has had contemplations of suicide and that stress caused his divorce should make us all wonder whether he should remain in his position of authority,” Beutel said.

The investigation pursued by the district attorney’s office is not the first time Beutel and Watts have had disagreements. Watts has shared multiple posts on the Sheriff Jesse Watts Facebook page that said Beutel has tried to recall Watts and that Beutel refused to mediate with him since he became sheriff in 2018.

“Ted refuses to work with me like he did when I was a Deputy. Oddly enough, when I was a Deputy, Ted worked quite well with me. In a recent [Board of County Commissioners] Meeting, he stated it was because ‘thats when [Watts] had a supervisor’,” Watts wrote on Facebook. “Well, I will say this. You, the community members are both of OUR supervisors as Elected Officials, but he still refuses to work with me and does everything in his control and power to make my life miserable, harder or just to add unnecessary stress.”

When asked follow-up questions about Beutel’s failure to work with Watts, Beutel did not respond to questions from the Sentinel. 

According to Beutel, the investigation has been referred to several state agencies and county commissioners for their consideration.

Commissioner Rich McKay declined an interview with the Sentinel because of “the potential litigious nature of this investigation.” He said “legal counsel has advised we not provide interviews at this point in time.” Similarly, Commissioner Marty Plaskett declined an interview because of the fluidity of the situation.

According to the investigation report, Watts claimed to have text messages of the accused resident apologizing to the woman for participating in the alleged assault, but no one quoted in the investigation had seen said messages. 

Watts’ employee told investigators when they confronted the accused resident about the alleged assault, he denied it had happened and said he had no contact with the woman other than an initial introduction. The employee also told Spencer Investigations that Watts had made hostile comments about the resident.

The resident’s mother posted a letter to the county commissioners on Facebook on July 6, asking them to act on Watts’ allegation against her son and remove Watts from office. She added on the post she would give the Spencer Investigations report to anyone interested. 

“Our County must not condone nor take lightly a public employee — especially in law enforcement, that blatantly spreads heinous lies about members of this community,” the letter read.