Ex-probation officer accused of sexual misconduct with children pleads not guilty

A former Clark County juvenile probation officer accused of sexual misconduct with two children pleaded not guilty Tuesday.

Eddie Wide, 61, left his county job in May after decades of employment, according to spokesperson Jennifer Cooper.

Wide was indicted earlier this month on 20 counts, including lewdness with a child under 16, child abuse, neglect or endangerment, sexual assault of a child under 16, attempted sexual assault of a child under 16 and soliciting a child for prostitution.

The indictment lists the initials of two alleged victims. Wide was previously charged in Las Vegas Justice Court, but the indictment added new charges and a new victim, prosecutors previously said at a hearing.

Wide, whose bail was previously set at $200,000, appeared out of jail custody for his arraignment, wearing a surgical mask across his face.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Fleck asked for a speedy trial. Senior District Judge Carolyn Ellsworth asked if Wide was pleading not guilty.

“Yes, ma’am, not guilty,” he replied.

Defense attorney Andrew Leavitt declined to comment after the hearing, saying that he needed to read a transcript of the grand jury proceeding that led to Wide’s indictment.

One of the alleged victims testified to grand jurors that he was first sent to juvenile detention in September 2023, when he was 14.

He noted at intake that he had previously been solicited or trafficked for prostitution. Wide later asked him about that experience, he said.

“(I)t just didn’t feel right,” he testified. “Like I didn’t understand why we’d be talking about that.”

Wide “started asking me questions like what was the oldest guy I’ve ever been with and how he could find me,” the alleged victim said. He recalled giving Wide his Instagram information.

A short time later, he said Wide showed him a picture of Wide’s genitalia. Wide directed the boy to engage in a sex act and touched him inappropriately, he testified. He said he told a nurse about “the incidents with Eddie Wide.”

“I told her that it almost happened, but it didn’t,” he said.

Someone he thinks was an investigator spoke with him, he said, but he did not hear anything else about the incident and continued to see Wide during other stints in juvenile detention.

Metro and the county did not comment on the prior inquiry, but a police report describes Wide being suspected of lewdness with a child in November 2023.

“Everybody was just calling me a liar, telling me I was lying about what I said when I was trying to tell them because he worked there for like 30 years, so everybody knew him at the facility,” he said.

At one point, he said another staffer told him to apologize to Wide, which he did.

He said a sexual encounter happened while he was in custody in November, and that he did not want it to happen. “(I)t just was like one of those things where it’s like, I feel like what was he going to do if I didn’t do it,” he said.

After being released, he met Wide for sexual contact and Wide gave him money, he said. Surveillance footage corroborated an encounter in April, according to a police report.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.