Judge to decide on release of sensitive documents

Monday, Oct. 4, 1999 | 11:30 a.m.

District Judge James Mahan was to hear arguments today on whether he should release documents showing the attorney general's office conducted a secret intelligence investigation of top Nevada gaming regulators.

Thomas Biggar, a District Court discovery commissioner responsible for overseeing evidence in civil cases, already has recommended turning over some 900 pages of documents to a former investigator suing Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa for forcing him to resign in 1996 because he wouldn't participate in the probe.

Biggar has reported that he saw documents in the attorney general's file that show intelligence was gathered on former Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, his friend, politically connected gaming lawyer, Frank Schreck, and employees who worked for Bible. At the time, Bible was locked in a heated rift with Del Papa.

The discovery commissioner has recommended $3,500 in sanctions against the attorney general for stonewalling the former investigator's requests for documents. Intelligence, Biggar reported, also was gathered on the investigator, Mike Anzalone.

On Friday, the attorney general filed additional court papers opposing the sanctions and the release of the documents.

The attorney general previously has asked Mahan to removed Anzalone's Phoenix lawyer, Christine Manno, from the case. Del Papa deputies contend Manno had improper contact with a whistleblower in their office who claims to have knowledge of wrongdoing regarding the handling of documents in the Anzalone case.

Manno had contacted Biggar after she received a call from the whistleblower, a former secretary for Del Papa's deputies who still works in state government. Biggar questioned the witness behind closed doors in August in the presence of Manno and Del Papa's deputies.

Del Papa deputies rapped Biggar in their latest court papers for not being fair to them in his public comments about the reported intelligence investigation.

Del Papa, who withdrew from the 2000 U.S. Senate race last month, has denied conducting such a probe. But her deputies have acknowledged that intelligence was gathered.

Biggar said the intelligence was collected under the guise of the criminal investigation into the slot cheating activities of ex-Control Board electronics expert Ron Harris.

Among the items Biggar has ordered turned over to Anzalone are eight hours of videotapes Harris made with Deputy Attorney General David Thompson after the former board employee had pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators.

Thompson asked Harris questions about regulators on the tapes, portions of which were leaked to the national media to embarrass Bible and the gaming industry.

Bible, now chairman of the Nevada Ethics Commission, has previously called for the release of the documents.