Attorneys for Billy Walters get requested judge

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2000 | 1:37 a.m.

Attorneys for sports gambler and golf course developer Billy Walters and three others will get the judge they wanted in a money laundering case.

District Judge Donald Mosley, who twice before dismissed nearly identical indictments against the men, will hear the latest indictment, thanks to a decision Thursday by Chief District Judge Lee Gates.

Gates ruled that because the indictment was based on the same facts and underlying events as the first two, it would be improper "forum shopping" to assign it to a different judge.

Deputy Attorney General David Thompson said when the indictment was returned that it was a completely different case than the first two, so Gates originally assigned it randomly to District Judge Michael Douglas.

Thompson contended that while the facts are the same, the third indictment charges a series of individual acts rather than the grand conspiracy that was alleged in the first two.

The latest indictment charges Walters, Jimmie Jay Hanley, computer expert Daniel Pray and New Yorker John Tognino with transporting the proceeds from illegal sports betting in and out of Nevada. Walters, Hanley and Pray are free without bail. Tognino has not yet been arrested on the warrant issued when the indictment was returned Nov. 19.

While the attorney general's office has contended that Mosley may be biased because of a close personal friendship with Hanley's attorney, John Moran Jr., Gates said that issue can only be addressed through a petition to dismiss Mosley once the case gets back to his courtroom.

Gates said that would give Mosley a chance to answer the allegations and testify at a disqualification hearing.

The charges allege that Walters unlawfully transferred proceeds from a nationwide sports betting operation throughout the country and even overseas.

Mosley had dismissed the first two indictments because of what he said were procedural and legal problems, although the first indictment was ordered reinstated by the Nevada Supreme Court.