Former official seeks return of television she purchased with dirty money

No one ever accused convicted former Clark County Recorder Frances Deane of lacking nerve.

Deane is trying to get back a 42-inch plasma television she bought with cash under the table from a businessman seeking access to her office. She has been calling the Las Vegas police evidence vault asking for the flat screen’s return.

But District Attorney David Roger says his office opposes giving back the television until Deane pays restitution to the county stemming from her well-publicized corruption case.

In January, Deane was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay the county $54,000.

Roger says the television technically is still evidence in the criminal case against Deane.

The case remains open because Deane has a couple of more months to decide whether to withdraw last August’s guilty plea, Roger explains.

Deane had pleaded guilty to theft, misconduct of a public officer and a charge of personally profiting from her office.

Back in 2006, businessman Monty Miller, who cooperated with prosecutors, testified that Deane told him she bought the flat screen at R.C. Willey’s with some of the $20,000 in cash he had given her.