Attorney seeks more sanctions vs. Del Papa

Tuesday, Sept. 21, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

A district judge has been asked to impose more than $36,000 in sanctions against Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and her office for stonewalling efforts to uncover a secret intelligence investigation of top gaming regulators.

The proposed sanctions are more than 10 times the $3,500 that Discovery Commissioner Thomas Biggar recommended last week to District Judge James Mahan.

Phoenix attorney Christine Manno, who is seeking the sanctions on behalf of her client, former Del Papa investigator Mike Anzalone, said in court papers Monday that the higher amount is necessary to cover her legal fees in a lawsuit against the attorney general's office.

Anzalone filed suit in February 1998, alleging Del Papa forced him to resign two years earlier because he wouldn't participate in the intelligence probe, which targeted then Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, a Del Papa political adversary.

Manno said she has been forced to bill her client for many unnecessary hours because of the attorney general's "inappropriate actions" in covering up the secret investigation.

"A monetary sanction in such a small amount as $3,500 under the circumstances in this case does not send a clear enough message to defendants or their counsel to keep them from continuing this type of abuse in the future," Manno wrote.

Last week, Biggar, who oversees the sharing of evidence in civil cases, issued a 31-page report recommending the sanctions against the attorney general for lodging "frivolous objections" to Anzalone's requests for documents.

Biggar also recommended turning over to Anzalone more than 900 pages of documents and eight hours of videotapes of a convicted slot cheat that confirm the existence of the intelligence probe. The slot cheat, Ron Harris, a former Control Board electronics expert, was asked about gaming regulators on the videotapes after he agreed to cooperate with the attorney general.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Richard Linstrom has said his office will lodge objections to Biggar's recommendations.

Mahan has scheduled a hearing next month on the sanctions and a move by the attorney general's office to force Manno off the case.

Del Papa, who withdrew earlier this month from the 2000 U.S. Senate race, has denied conducting an intelligence investigation, but one of her top aides recently acknowledged in court that intelligence was gathered on gaming regulators.

In June Biggar reported that he had seen records in Del Papa's files that show she conducted background checks on Bible and his friend, Frank Schreck, a prominent gaming lawyer and political fund-raiser.

Biggar suggested the attorney general's office may have overstepped its authority.