Del Papa fights move to turn over evidence

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1999 | 10:55 a.m.

As expected, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa filed court papers Tuesday looking to put the kibosh on efforts to shed more light on a secret intelligence investigation of top gaming regulators.

In a five-page brief, Senior Deputy Attorney General Bridget Branigan criticized Discovery Commissioner Thomas Biggar, who has recommended sanctioning Del Papa's office and releasing documents that show the probe took place.

Branigan accused Biggar, who oversees the sharing of evidence in civil cases, of allowing former Del Papa investigator Mike Anzalone and his Phoenix lawyer, Christine Manno, to "conduct a fishing expedition" into the attorney general's confidential files.

The brief was submitted to District Judge James Mahan, who has the final say on Biggar's recommendations.

Anzalone filed suit against Del Papa in February 1998 for forcing him to resign because he wouldn't participate in the intelligence probe of then state Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, a Del Papa political adversary.

Last week Biggar recommended turning over to Anzalone about 900 pages of documents that confirm the existence of the secret investigation and imposing $3,500 in sanctions against the attorney general for stonewalling requests for those documents.

Branigan asked Mahan not to go along with Biggar's recommendations and give her another month to file more papers to persuade the judge that Biggar has come to the wrong conclusions.

On Monday Manno asked Mahan to consider imposing much larger sanctions, more than $36,000, because of the unnecessary work she has had to put into the case in the wake of the attorney general's reported indiscretions.

Del Papa has denied conducting an intelligence probe of Bible and others, but Branigan recently acknowledged in court that intelligence was gathered.

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.

Earlier this month, Del Papa dropped out of the 2000 U.S. Senate race.