Arraignment is set for Walters, friends

Tuesday, Nov. 30, 1999 | 11:04 a.m.

The initial arraignments for millionaire professional gambler and Las Vegas golf course developer Billy Walters and others charged in a money laundering indictment is set for 9 a.m. Thursday in District Court.

On the eve of that court date, a Clark County Grand Jury transcript has been filed that is expected to add fuel to the Nevada Attorney General's case against Walters and associates Jimmie Hanley, John Tognino and Daniel Pray.

The transcript filed Monday in District Court indicates that on the day police raided Walters' Sierra Sports offices on Polaris Avenue, someone from a remote computer tried to erase computer files as Metro officers waited with search warrants in hands for FBI computer experts to arrive.

Police, however, were able to later salvage the documents that allegedly were deleted during the December 1996 police raid, the court document says.

The filing of that document just days before Walters and the others will enter pleas and be given a tentative trial date is the latest in a complicated case that has been thrown out of court and reinstated.

Walters and his associates are accused of laundering proceeds from an international multimillion-dollar sports betting operation. Walters has been described as one of the biggest sports bettors in the country.

In May 1998 District Judge Donald Mosley dismissed the indictment against the defendants on grounds that prosecutors had failed to show the defendants' attorneys all of the evidence provided the grand jury.

In March the Nevada Supreme Court reinstated a money-laundering indictment.

After Mosley dismissed the initial indictment, prosecutors gave Walters the records he was seeking before they obtained a second indictment.

But Mosley then dismissed the second round of charges, ruling that prosecutors failed to properly state that a crime of money laundering had occurred.Thursday's hearing is scheduled before Judge Michael Douglas.