Restriction on documents in AG probe angers targets

Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1999 | 11:06 a.m.

A district judge's decision restricting disclosure of secret documents that may show the attorney general's office conducted an intelligence probe of gaming regulators has angered some of those reportedly targeted.

After a hearing Monday, District Judge James Mahan ordered about 900 pages of potentially explosive documents turned over to Phoenix lawyer Christine Manno, but he slapped a protective order on the documents barring Manno from disclosing them to the media and the public.

Mahan also refused to give Manno copies of eight hours of videotapes of Ron Harris, a former state Gaming Control Board electronics expert who pleaded guilty to slot cheating in August 1995 and cooperated with the attorney general's office. The judge, however, allowed Manno to view the tapes.

Afterward, Manno said that Mahan's ruling amounted to essentially a gag order.and that she was highly disappointed.

Manno represents Mike Anzalone, a former state investigator suing Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa for forcing him to resign in February 1996 because he refused to participate in the intelligence probe. Anzalone, who later became a target of the investigation, has been fighting for nearly two years to obtain the documents to prove his case.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Richard Linstrom described Mahan's order as "thoughtful and fair."

But Rex Carlson, a former Control Board lab manager who contends he was wrongly targeted by Del Papa, criticized the judge's decision.

"You have an agency here that may have abused its authority, and now you're essentially keeping that hidden from the public," Carlson said.

"All of us targeted deserve to know the extent of the attorney general's investigation so that we may defend ourselves against any insinuation of improprieties that may be contained in their records."

Carlson, who in July was first to urge the release of the documents, said Mahan took a "very narrow view" of the investigation and failed to consider how the probe affected the lives of those targeted.

Another reported target, former Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, also previously has called for the release of the documents, most of which were contained in the massive criminal investigation into the slot cheating activities of Harris.

"I haven't changed my opinion," Bible said Monday. "I've always felt the file should be open."

Mahan's decision Monday appeared to be an about-face from a ruling last month in which he ordered the documents turned over to Manno and Anzalone without any disclosure restrictions.

"I'm going to be very unhappy if I see these floating around the Internet or somewhere else," Mahan told attorneys during the hearing.

The judge said he was concerned that the reputations of innocent people mentioned in the documents might be harmed if their names surfaced publicly.

But during the hearing, Manno disagreed.

"These people have a right to know if they were investigated and cleared, or if they were investigated and they shouldn't have been," she said.

Manno pointed out that Discovery Commissioner Thomas Biggar, who oversees the sharing of evidence in civil cases, had recommended that Mahan release the documents without restrictions.

In an order this summer, Biggar said the documents tend to support Anzalone's claims that the attorney general's office secretly investigated Bible and others. Bible, now chairman of the Nevada Resort Association, was at odds politically with Del Papa when the probe took place in 1995 and 1996.

Del Papa originally denied conducting the investigation. But recently, amid the heated court battle over the release of the documents, she modified her position, saying some intelligence was gathered. Del Papa continues to insist, however, that her office did not break the law.

Among the documents ordered turned over to Manno and Anzalone are reports of secret background checks on Bible and Frank Schreck, a political connected gaming attorney who has raised campaign funds for the last three Nevada governors.

Mahan has previously sanctioned two of Del Papa's deputies for "abusive tactics" in stonewalling Anzalone's efforts to obtain the intelligence documents.