2 state lawyers fined over AG probe

Friday, Nov. 5, 1999 | 11:12 a.m.

District Judge James Mahan late Thursday leveled personal sanctions against two top state lawyers for stonewalling efforts in court to uncover a reported intelligence investigation of top gaming regulators.

In a rare ruling, Mahan ordered Solicitor General Mark Ghan, the attorney general's chief litigator, and Senior Deputy Attorney General Bridget Branigan to pay $1,500 a piece out of their own pockets for their "dilatory and abusive tactics."

Both will be allowed to perform 10 hours of free public service as an alternative to the fines.

Mahan said he made the sanctions personal because he didn't want the taxpayers to foot the bill.

"The court finds that a monetary sanction to be paid from public funds is an illusionary punishment, a penalty without teeth," Mahan said in his four-page decision.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Linstrom said Thursday he was "disappointed" with Mahan's decision and was weighing his office's options, including appealing to the Nevada Supreme Court.

The disciplinary action stems from a lawsuit filed against Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa by former investigators Mike Anzalone, who has alleged he was forced to resign in February 1996 because he refused to participate in the intelligence probe.

The attorney general's office recently acknowledged that it had gathered intelligence on regulators, but it denied breaking any laws as alleged by Anzalone.

Though Anzalone filed his suit in February 1998, he has yet to receive any of the documents he requested from the attorney general to move his case to a trial stage.

In his decision, Mahan ordered the attorney general's office to give Anzalone and his Phoenix lawyer, Christine Manno, some 900 pages of documents that refer to the attorney general's intelligence gathering activities.

Most of the documents are contained in the massive criminal investigation of Ron Harris, a former Gaming Control Board electronics expert who pleaded guilty to slot cheating in August 1996 and began cooperating with the attorney general's office.

Earlier this year, Thomas Biggar, a District Court discovery commissioner who oversees the sharing of evidence, reported that he saw documents in the Harris file that show background checks were conducted on former Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, his friend, politically connected gaming lawyer, Frank Schreck, and employees who worked for Bible.

Biggar also concluded that eight hours of videotapes the attorney general's office made with Harris in 1996 were relevant to Anzalone's intelligence allegations.

Mahan gave Anzalone permission to view the tapes on the condition he not disclose to anyone what he sees.

The tapes, portions of which already have been leaked to the media, contain unsubstantiated allegations about regulators and those who work in the gaming industry.

Bible, now president of the Nevada Resort Association, has publicly called upon the attorney general to open the Harris file.

But Del Papa and her deputies have fought hard to keep it closed.

Anzalone, who no longer lives in Nevada, has alleged the intelligence probe evolved out of the Harris investigation, which contains more than 50,000 pages of documents.

At the time of the Harris investigation, Del Papa and Bible were feuding.

On Wednesday Ghan apologized in court for the shoddy way in which documents were turned over to Biggar during the unusually long discovery process in Anzalone's case.

"I regret that errors were made," Ghan said.

He insisted, however, that there was no attempt to disrupt the case.