Wednesday, July 7, 1999 | 11:26 a.m.
A former Gaming Control Board lab manager is urging the release of secret records that show the attorney general's office conducted an intelligence investigation of top casino regulators.
Rex Carlson, who headed the games lab in Las Vegas from 1990-95, wrote a letter last week to Discovery Commissioner Thomas Biggar asking him to make public the records, which stem from the criminal investigation into Ron Harris, a former lab member convicted of slot cheating in 1996.
The 45-year-old Carlson, credited with uncovering the slot cheating activities of Harris in Nevada, said he decided to step forward following a June 27 Sun story that disclosed new information about Del Papa's reported secret probing.
Carlson said that Del Papa violated his civil rights during the investigation, which he said victimized Control Board members and the very lab workers who had exposed Harris, now serving a seven-year prison term.
Del Papa has repeatedly denied conducting an intelligence investigation. But Biggar, who oversees the sharing of evidence in civil cases, recently told her deputies in court that their own records show such an inquiry was conducted.
Biggar is preparing to turn over the documents to Mike Anzalone, a former Del Papa investigator suing the attorney general for firing him because he wouldn't participate in the investigation.
Anzalone, who had put together most of the criminal case against Harris, has charged that the intelligence probe began under the cover of the Harris prosecution in December 1995 and continued after Harris pleaded guilty in August 1996 and agreed to cooperate with the attorney general's office.
At a June 18 hearing, Biggar informed Anzalone's Phoenix lawyer, Christine Manno, that his review of more than 50,000 documents in the Harris file found records that showed secret background checks were conducted in 1996 and '97 on former Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, some of his top administrators and prominent gaming attorney Frank Schreck, a Bible friend and political fund-raiser. Biggar said the documents even show that Anzalone, who was fired in February 1996, had become a target.
Carlson and other lab members also were investigated, Biggar said.
No charges, however, were filed against anyone.
At the time of the investigation, Bible, who retired last September after 10 years at the helm of the board, was embroiled in a political feud with Del Papa, who recently announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2000.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Richard Linstrom issued a statement today on Del Papa's behalf saying it would not be appropriate for the attorney general to defend herself in the media over the Harris criminal investigation, which remained under seal.
Linstrom, however, said the attorney general would have been derelict in her duty not to "review and evaluate" allegations of wrongdoing involving state employees.
Del Papa has previously issued a statement criticizing Biggar and vowing to appeal any decision he makes to release the Harris file.
In his letter to Biggar, Carlson said he believes the attorney general's office was "after Bible" and looking to a prove that Harris had other conspirators at the lab to "further blacken" Bible's reputation.
"I would hope there is a watchdog organization within state government that would be willing to review and investigate abuse by a public office," Carlson told Biggar. "If so, these records should be made available to them."
Bible has previously called on Del Papa to make public the Harris file, which contains a videotaped debriefing of Harris.
Carlson charged in interviews with the Sun that Del Papa unfairly turned the investigation of Harris into a "witch hunt" against those at the board who pushed the hardest for the prosecution of Harris.
"It is unfathomable to learn that the attorney general's office turned their suspicions to the laboratory personnel who provided the real expertise in solving the Harris crimes," Carlson said. "As more of this fiasco comes to light, it is obvious that our rights to privacy were violated.
"It is my sincere personal opinion that Del Papa is unfit for public office and should answer for her office's unprofessional behavior."
Carlson, now a mathematician in private business, said that had other lab members been involved with Harris, his activities never would have been brought to light.
The former lab manager joined Anzalone in alleging that the Harris investigation veered off course after Del Papa assigned Deputy Attorney General David Thompson to the case in December 1995.
"Her man Thompson floated conspiracy theories in the press for quite some time that others in the lab were involved," Carlson told Biggar.
"When I wrote a letter of complaint to her, she responded with a harassing telephone call to me at my place of work, then a follow-up letter accusing me of impeding the investigation in the course of my efforts on the case. That's absurd. I discovered the crime."
Linstrom said Carlson "mischaracterized completely" the conversation with Del Papa.
Carlson said, "Those of us who worked in the lab knew that we had been closely investigated. This included procurement of telephone records and financial information. Her office also circulated a request among casinos to search ... gaming winnings in our names along with (those of) spouses and known family members."
That, Carlson said, amounted to a "further embarrassment" for everyone at the lab.
"Please open the files so that those of us who worked so hard on this investigation can protect our legal rights," Carlson said.
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