Doubts linger over AG probe

Friday, April 7, 2000 | 11:41 a.m.

Secret documents made public this week by Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa failed to explain how an investigation into a low-level Gaming Control Board employee turned into a fishing expedition against high-ranking regulators.

The chief target of what some have described as an intelligence probe was former Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, who was at odds politically with Del Papa.

But the names of some of Nevada's political leaders -- then Gov. Bob Miller and Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan -- were included in a 21-page confidential intelligence report released this week suggesting they could be bribed to influence gaming license applications.

Del Papa acknowledged that the allegations contained in the intelligence report, most of which came from second and third-hand sources, never were substantiated. That, however, did not stop the elected leaders named in the report from harshly criticizing the way her office handled the investigation.

Some have accused Del Papa of abusing the power of her office, a charge she denied.

"It's clear to me that this investigation veered badly off course," Bible said today. "The documents turned over this week show that the attorney general had no basis to investigate me."

Until ordered to turn over some 900 pages of documents this week, Del Papa, publicly had been denying for three years that she was investigating Bible.

Mike Anzalone, a former Del Papa investigator originally assigned to probe the slot cheating activities of the low-level board employee, Ron Harris, has alleged in a lawsuit that the investigation turned to Bible and others at the board shortly after Deputy Attorney General David Thompson took the reins of the probe. Del Papa had personally asked Thompson, a close friend, to take over the case on Dec. 13, 1995, documents show.

Anzalone charged that he asked to be taken off the investigation the first week in January 1996 after Thompson told him to obtain Bible's bank records. At that point, Anzalone alleged, there was no reason to believe that Bible was a suspect in the Harris slot cheating investigation.

None of Bible's bank records were found in the documents made public this week, but the documents show the attorney general's office looked at his property records and those of his family members in April 1997 and January 1998.

Prior to that, documents show, Thompson and his new investigator, Ron Wheatley, went to several disgruntled former board employees and licensees in 1996 looking for dirt on Bible.

Harris, an electronics expert who pleaded guilty and cooperated with the attorney general in August 1996, also was asked about Bible on several hours of videotapes released this week.

None of the allegations pursued against Bible, now president of the influential Nevada Resort Association, were related to the Harris case. Investigators instead looked at old, discarded accusations that Bible was accepting payoffs and showing favoritism to some licensees.

Thompson, the documents show, informed Del Papa that the Harris probe would be far-reaching as early as Jan. 5, 1996.

In a confidential memo to the attorney general, Thompson criticized the Control Board's internal investigation of Harris, saying it appeared "too chummy for comfort."

Thompson told Del Papa that his investigation should "consider the possibility that other Gaming Control Board investigators might be involved in Mr. Harris' criminal activities."

He also began to raise suspicions in the January 1996 memo about Anzalone, who had concluded Harris acted alone.

"I am also concerned, given Mr. Harris' social contacts with the very people who investigated him and investigator Anzalone's prior work with the Gaming Control Board, that we may be subjected to accusations of a good old boy cover-up of Mr. Harris' associates if the file is inadequately documented," Thompson wrote.

Later that month, Wheatley suggested a three-pronged investigation -- one looking at the criminal allegations against Harris, another aimed at "potential co-conspirators" and accusations that board members were "taking bribes," and a third examining whether Anzalone was impeding their efforts.

Wheatley aired his thoughts on the rapidly expanding investigation in a Jan. 24, 1996, memo to Thompson.

"A major impediment to an aggressive open, rather covert, investigation of the alleged conspiracies is not knowing who to trust," he wrote. "This further limits the speed at which the investigation can proceed."

Wheatley also suggested in his memo that the source of the bribery and conspiracy allegations was Charles Meacham, a Florida private investigator hired by Frank Romano, whose license was revoked in 1990 in the American Coin slot-rigging scam. Romano was trying to get his license back and claimed through Meacham to have come up with wrongdoing on the part of board members.

Bible had obtained a copy of Meacham's report years earlier on Feb. 2, 1990, and turned it over to Del Papa's predecessor, Brian McKay, who later found no merit to the allegations. At the time, Bible also reported to McKay an attempt by Romano to improperly influence his handling of the American Coin case.

In his memo, Wheatley offered to travel to Florida to interview Meacham. Ultimately, Wheatley obtained Meacham's report.

Thompson, meanwhile, briefed Del Papa on the status of the sweeping investigation in a Jan. 28, 1996, memo.

He again criticized the Control Board's investigation of Harris, saying New Jersey gaming agents believed that "members of the GCB" were involved in the Harris slot cheating scam.

Thompson also accused Anzalone of withholding key notes and documents from him that would implicate others at the board in wrongdoing, a charge that Anzalone strongly denied.

"In my opinion, investigator Anzalone's conduct effectively obstructed this investigation for over a month," Thompson told Del Papa.

Thompson said Anzalone among other things withheld notes of a conversation he had with a New Jersey investigator about Meacham, who was contending that he "possessed a box of files showing payoffs to Mr. Harris and other GCB officials."

About two weeks later on Feb. 15, 1996, Wheatley was dispatched to interview Romano, documents show.

Wheatley noted his conversation with Romano in a three-page report.

He said the purpose of the interview was to hear Romano's allegations of misconduct against Control Board members and some of their employees.

"Romano described Chairman Bill Bible as having 'clean hands,' " Wheatley wrote. "Romano does not believe that Chairman Bible is involved in any of the alleged corrupt activities of the GCB personnel.

"Romano then stated that Bible is dangerous for two reasons -- he is ignorant of how gaming really works, and two, he is arrogant."

Later in the year, Del Papa herself met with Romano.

Wheatley, meanwhile, continued to try to dredge up allegations of wrongdoing on Bible's part.

He interviewed several former Control Board employees, including Ron Hollis, a former intelligence chief fired by Bible for staging a phony raid to protect an informant.

Hollis told Wheatley that Bible had knowledge of the phony raid, another allegation that never was substantiated.

No charges were ever filed against Bible or any other Control Board employees.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lasvegassun.com.