Walters calls indictment ‘witch hunt’ against him

Jeff German and Bill Gang

Monday, Oct. 19, 1998 | 11:14 a.m.

Billy Walters has accused the attorney general's office of mounting a "witch hunt" against him while ignoring serious crime in the state.

Walters, a politically connected professional gambler and golf course developer, said in an interview with the SUN that his indictment last Friday was the result of an unchecked deputy attorney general "hell-bent on becoming famous."

The deputy, David Thompson, has gone after other well-known people in the past, Walters charged.

Walters cited allegations that Thompson spearheaded an intelligence investigation of ex-state Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible as an example of the prosecutor's alleged over-reaching.

A former investigator in the attorney general's office has alleged in court documents that the intelligence probe, which ultimately was abandoned, was launched as part of a rift between Bible and Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa. But Del Papa has denied ever conducting such an inquiry.

Bible, who retired last month after 10 years at the helm of the Control Board, now serves on the Nevada Ethics Commission.

Walters, who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to local charities and political campaigns over the last several years, said Thompson spent two years trying to come up with dirt on Bible, but was unsuccessful.

"When that failed, he selected what he perceived to be another high-profile individual and decided to show the legal community that he is a true intellect and everybody else is an idiot," Walters said.

"When you combine the two investigations, this man has been on a personal witch hunt for four years trying to prove how smart he is."

Thompson denied Sunday that he targeted Walters because of his notoriety.

"I never heard of Billy Walters before I was assigned this case," Thompson said. "This is a case where we had a matter referred to us by the Clark County DA's office. The question was whether there was anything criminal. We looked at it, and we thought so."

District Attorney Stewart Bell had disqualified his office from the probe because his son worked at a golf course Walters owned.

Walters charged that the attorney general's office went after him while Jeremy Strohmeyer's friend, David Cash, remained unprosecuted in the death of Sherrice Iverson and the attorney general's office botched an investigation into the Harley L. Harmon Mortgage Co.

The attorney general, Walters said, also failed to pick up on an illegal Internet bookmaking operation in Las Vegas earlier this year. Charges instead were filed by the U.S. attorney's office in New York.

"All of this was allowed to happen because this guy (Thompson) doesn't have a competent supervisor," Walters said.

Walters contended Del Papa has been spending all of her time trying to get re-elected.

But Thompson retorted: "There are no loose canons at the AG's office."

He said he answers to several supervisors and that all, including Del Papa, were briefed on the investigation.

Walters and three of his associates were charged in a three-count conspiracy and money laundering indictment Friday stemming from his international multimillion-dollar sports betting operation.

Law enforcement authorities believe he's one of the biggest sports bettors in the country and has ties to numerous illegal bookmakers.

Walters, however, said the investigation sends the wrong message about Nevada to the country.

"They're telling all of America that a deputy attorney general is going to spend this much time and resources prosecuting a resident of the state of Nevada for making a bet," he said.

"I personally believe that if the anti-gamers had someone in Nevada who was intentionally trying to destroy the industry and our state, I can't imagine them having someone anymore effective than David Thompson."

Thompson conceded that he has no information that Walters is anything other than a bettor.

But he said he violated Nevada's money laundering statute by accepting money from illegal bookmakers across the country on a massive scale.

"Our state's money laundering law makes it a crime to receive proceeds of such felony activity and thereafter take the proceeds and hide the source, location, control and ownership," Thompson said.

A Clark County grand jury, with the help of Thompson and Metro Police intelligence detectives, first began investigating Walters in April.

The investigation -- which began long before the Clark County Commission last month awarded Walters a lease to develop a Strip golf course -- stemmed from a December 1996 raid on his Sierra Sports Consulting business in Las Vegas.

About $2.7 million was seized in the raid that coincided with similar searches in New York.

Walters and his associates were indicted in May, but District Judge Donald Mosley secretly tossed out the charges, forcing investigators to go back to the grand jury and build a new case.

In 1990, Walters was indicted by a federal grand jury with a dozen others in the FBI's well-publicized Computer Gang betting probe. But following a lengthy trial, Walters and the rest of the defendants were acquitted.

Walters said law enforcement authorities have had a hard time comprehending that he's not a bookmaker.

"They don't understand the difference between a bookmaker and a successful sports bettor," Walters said. "When they see somebody who's successful as I am in sports betting, they can't imagine that what I'm doing wouldn't be illegal."

Walters said intelligence detectives pressed the investigation so they could keep the $2.7 million seized from him under state forfeiture laws.

In a statement Walters released after his indictment, he said: "In my opinion, it has been insinuated on numerous occasions that this entire issue could be resolved for a portion of the amount of money that has been confiscated.

"If I were wrong, don't you think that I would have settled, rather than risk any damage to my growing business operations in Southern Nevada?"

Walters described the investigation as the "equivalent of an economic drive-by shooting.

"The vast majority of those involved in law enforcement are wonderful people," he said. "But not unlike any other business, they are not all perfect."