Use of graphic bomb injuries in brochures criticized

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, Oct. 29, 1998 | 11:33 a.m.

It was two days before Kenny Gager's 42nd birthday when his wife returned from the mailbox and excitedly placed a parcel on the kitchen counter, presuming it was from their son.

Gager rested his hand on the package while he read his son's letter, which confirmed a birthday present was on its way.

While Gager's wife went to retrieve lunch from the refrigerator, he slit the heavy-duty packaging tape.

"It's ungodly what happened after that," the Nevada state trooper said Wednesday from his Minden home.

The mail-bomb blast -- coordinated by a career criminal who Gager had once arrested -- blew his left hand off, leaving nerves dangling freely. He also lost his left eye and suffered severe muscular damage to his abdomen.

"I kept waiting to die," Gager said. "I thought about my accomplishments. I thought about never seeing my family again. I told my wife to get a gun and finish me off."

That was 21 surgeries and five years ago.

Last week, Gager was pulled into an already-ugly Clark County Commission race in which candidates scarcely touched on District F issues before launching into smear attacks.

Now, less than a week before Election Day, it appears the race between commission candidates Steve Harney and Erin Kenny has moved beyond personal attacks and is making use of shock tactics.

Gager and one of his attorneys, Anthony Hall of Reno, said Wednesday they were unaware that glossy brochures that include graphic, color photographs of the trooper's injuries had been reproduced and sent to voters.

Hall wouldn't comment on how he and attorney Jack Kennedy feel about their client's tragedy being used as campaign fodder, except to say the pictures were attachments to the lawsuit.

"We have not released anything except what is public record," Hall said. "It's a public suit and people have a right to use public information."

Gager's voice still shakes when he talks about the bombing and how he contemplated suicide in the following years, but he doesn't mind his photographs being used simply because they show what explosives can do.

Gager added that even though he wasn't consulted before the photographs were used in a campaign brochure, he is not angry they were mailed to Las Vegas residents.

"I want people to see what a bomb really does," Gager said. "It's not like Mel Gibson and Danny Glover (of the Lethal Weapon movies). When a house blows up, they roll out onto the lawn, have a laugh, brush themselves off and go have a beer."

The flier appeared in mailboxes of residents in southwest Clark County last weekend, compliments of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Protective Association, which has endorsed Kenny.

Kenny insists she was unaware of the brochure until it arrived in her mailbox.

"I'm not sure the pictures were necessary to tell the story," Kenny said. "I do know the story is very compelling and relevant in terms of the type of character we're dealing with in the form of Mr. Harney."

The pamphlet -- which comes with a warning on the cover -- describes a lawsuit Gager filed June 24 against two state agencies and 10 individuals, including Harney, who was president of the Highway Patrol Association at the time of the bombing.

In the lawsuit, Gager claims employees and administrators with the Nevada Highway Patrol Division and the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety conspired to decommission him to civilian status while he was recuperating.

Specifically, the lawsuit says, Harney pressured the deputy director of the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety to decommission Gager.

Harney has explained his actions in earlier interviews, saying that Gager was receiving full trooper benefits while working in a civilian position. Harney has said that his actions were not prompted by a desire to hurt Gager, but by the desire of the Highway Patrol Association's board to be fair to other seriously injured troopers, who have been always been forced to take medical retirement at reduced benefits.

But Gager responded that the past treatment, too, was reprehensible. "Historically, they have taken broken troopers and thrown them in the Dumpster," he told the Sun a year ago.

The Police Protective Association says it sent the mailer because, "We believe State Trooper Kenny Gager is a cop's cop -- Steve Harney is not."

Association President Andy Anderson is on vacation and was unavailable for comment.

Harney's campaign manager, Mark Fierro, insists Harney stuck up for Gager and all wounded officers while he was president of the union.

"Nobody in any union would ever ask that someone lose their job," Fierro said. "Steve Harney led the charge for Ken Gager's "Officer of the Year" award."

Fierro said the Gager pamphlet has helped Harney's campaign thus far. People exposed to the mailer have called their headquarters to learn what Fierro calls the real truth about the civil lawsuit.

"This guy was used," Fierro said of Gager. "This is one of the most tragic uses of an injured human being's life I have ever seen."