Monday, June 12, 2000 | 11:35 a.m.
A Station Casinos executive who was cleared Friday of extortion charges still faces a state investigation into whether he violated gaming codes in his attempt to deter a Clark County commissioner from running for re-election.
The state Gaming Control Board is expected within two weeks to have its investigation completed into whether Station Casinos violated gaming codes during the controversy surrounding a political attack on Commissioner Lance Malone.
Station Casinos Vice President Mark Brown launched an attack against Malone after Malone reneged on his promise last January to oppose a competing casino planned in southwest Las Vegas.
Rather than becoming the dissenting vote that would have killed the project, Malone's last-minute change of mind pushed the casino through. A state panel has since reversed the commission's decision.
Brown's bid to torpedo Malone's campaign included an anonymous flier telling constituents Malone cannot be trusted and at least two conversations in which the commissioner was encouraged to drop the lawsuit and drop out of the race.
Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell ruled Friday that neither conversation could be considered attempts of extortion.
"Extortion only pertains to specific types of threats," Bell said. "In this case, while there were assertions made, they were political: that (Brown) would work to make Mr. Malone lose his commissioner's job. Political threats are not contemplated (as extortion)."
Malone could not be reached for comment Friday or today and his attorney, Don Campbell is out of town. Brown's attorney, Richard Wright, was also unavailable for comment.
But Malone has continued to question whether Brown's actions were legal.
Malone filed a lawsuit against the mailer distribution company Passkey Systems and unknown parties on March 10, claiming that because the flier was anonymous, it violated state election laws.
The next day Brown asked Malone to meet him in a Summerlin park and told the commissioner not to mention the meeting with anybody, sources in Malone's camp said.
During the conversation, which the commissioner tape-recorded, Malone was told a series of fliers had been prepared for mailing and that the commissioner should consider dropping out of the race. Malone delivered the tape to the FBI, which recorded a telephone conversation between the commissioner and Brown.
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