Former councilman files complaint against counsel for Ethics Commission

Friday, May 1, 1998 | 12:58 p.m.

Former Las Vegas city councilman Steve Miller said Deputy Attorney General Louis Ling, legal counsel for the commission, should be disqualified from future cases involving Mayor Jan Jones. Miller said Ling's boss, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, is a friend of Jones.

Miller accused Ling of quashing evidence in a recent ethics case against Jones.

Ling called the complaint "factually inaccurate in many ways. The very foundation of what Mr. Miller is saying is incorrect."

The case involves a complaint against Jones involving the 1993 sale of the Main Street Station Hotel-Casino here. A complaint filed with the Ethics Commission claimed Jones used her position as mayor and as a bank director to manipulate the sale of the bankrupt casino to Boyd Gaming Corp.

Miller said he traveled to Sparks, Nev. to testify at the April 22 hearing, but that he was not permitted to speak. Ling said he was unaware there were witnesses wanting to testify in the case because Las Vegas resident Bob Rose, who filed the complaint, did not tell the commission.

"The commission had every piece of information Mr. Rose provided to the commission," Ling said. "At no time did Mr. Rose inform us that Mr. Miller or anybody else was prepared to testify."

Rose said he remembers asking the commission to allow Miller to testify.

A letter Rose said he faxed to Ling on April 18 requested the commission hear from two witnesses, including Miller.

Ling said he never discussed the Rose complaint with Del Papa. And Del Papa said she did not talk to Jones or Ling about the case.

Ling said the commission will likely take up the complaint against him at a May 13 hearing in Las Vegas. A separate deputy attorney general has been assigned to the case, he said.