Columnist Jeff German: Del Papa goes after Anzalone’s attorney

Sunday, Sept. 19, 1999 | 1:26 a.m.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. His column appears Tuesdays,Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or 259-4067.

IT'S A CLASSIC trick of the legal trade. When you're constantly being bested by your opponent in court, you look to disqualify the adversary.

The Nevada attorney general's office has asked a district judge to remove a Phoenix lawyer from a lawsuit that has uncovered the office's secret intelligence gathering activities on top gaming regulators.

Over the past two years, attorney Christine Manno has caused much embarrassment to Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, while pressing hard to expose Del Papa's covert activities against her political enemies.

When no Nevada lawyer would do it, Manno filed a lawsuit nearly two years ago on behalf of ex-Del Papa investigator Mike Anzalone, who has alleged he was forced to resign because he wouldn't participate in an intelligence probe of Del Papa archenemy, Bill Bible, the retired chairman of the Gaming Control Board.

Earlier this month, after Discovery Commissioner Thomas Biggar said he would recommend turning over records that show the clandestine probe had taken place, the attorney general filed papers in District Court seeking to bounce Manno from the suit.

Top Del Papa deputies, Mark Ghan and Bridget Branigan, went over Biggar's head to District Judge James Mahan to oust the fearless Manno.

They came up with a lame excuse that Manno had somehow intruded on their attorney-client relationship when she took a phone call from a former secretary in the attorney general's office who claimed to have knowledge of discovery abuses by her former bosses in the Anzalone case.

These are the same Del Papa deputies Biggar rapped for frivolously asserting the attorney-client privilege when refusing to let him see thousands of pages of documents.

Several years ago, it turns out, Del Papa's snoopers conducted secret background checks on Bible and company under the guise of a criminal investigation into the slot cheating activities of ex-Control Board computer whiz Ron Harris.

Today, however, in the wake of Anzalone's suit, Ghan and Branigan now contend they can't give up any documents referring to those checks because it would compromise their attorney-client relationship with that very same Control Board, which relies on them for legal advice.

They are asserting the privilege even though Bible, their own former client, has called for public disclosure of the documents.

As the intelligence scandal has widened, Biggar has accused the attorney general of making a "mockery" of the privilege.

Last week, after months of reviewing more than 50,000 documents in the Harris file, Biggar issued a 31-page report in which he said he was recommending $3,500 in sanctions against the state's top law enforcement agency for deliberately stalling the Anzalone suit.

Biggar also recommended turning over about 900 pages of documents to Anzalone that could end up making the former investigator's case against Del Papa, who recently dropped out of the U.S. Senate race.

The attorney general's office, which continues to brand Anzalone a "disgruntled former employee," is lodging objections to the discovery commissioner's findings with Mahan, who has the final say in the Anzalone case.

Manno, meanwhile, has responded to the attorney general's transparent move to force her out of the lawsuit. She filed papers last week accusing Ghan and Branigan of going after her in an attempt to cover up their own indiscretions.

"It is often stated in litigation that when a party is unable to attack the substance of their opponent's argument, they attack the opponent's attorney," she wrote. "That is exactly what is occurring in this case wherein defendants who were caught wrongfully and intentionally withholding discovery documents in contempt of this court's express directive seek now to revengefully kill the messenger."

By anyone's account other than Ghan and Branigan, it is clear that Manno acted properly once contacted by the whistleblowing secretary, even seeking direction from Biggar before talking further with the ex-Del Papa employee.

Manno, it seems to me, deserves to remain in this case. She's doing a valuable service for her client and the citizens of Nevada.

In a democracy, there is nothing more important than to keep government in check, especially one being accused of abusing its power.