Columnist Jeff German: Del Papa faces big court test

Sunday, March 19, 2000 | 9:42 a.m.

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

The fireworks are about to begin in the courtroom of District Judge James Mahan.

The judge has scheduled a 9 a.m. hearing Tuesday on a motion by the Sun and KLAS Channel 8 to unseal documents that purport to show Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa secretly gathered intelligence on top gaming regulators and other prominent Nevadans.

The attorney general has fought hard to keep the public from seeing these documents, saying she has a duty to protect the reputations of those not charged with any crimes.

But the news organizations contend the public deserves to know whether Del Papa may have improperly tried to collect dirt on some of the state's most influential people.

"The Nevada citizenry has a right to know how its chief law enforcement officer behaved with respect to the investigation of the Gaming Control Board and its officials and employees," attorney Dominic Gentile, who represents the Sun and Channel 8, wrote in court papers last week.

"The public should be permitted to be informed and determine whether her exercise of discretion, supervision of subordinates and deployment of investigative resources was motivated by an honest desire to ferret out possible corruption in the agency or for other reasons not as consonant with the constitutional mandate she received when elected by the citizenry."

Making this case even more important are rumblings that intelligence may have been gathered far beyond the Control Board.

There's been talk that the attorney general's intelligence reports may contain the names of politicians at the highest level of government in Nevada -- politicians with impeccable reputations.

Disclosure of these names could have profound ramifications on Del Papa's political career. It might be the real reason why she has worked so hard to persuade Mahan to keep a lid on the documents. And it might be what motivated her to bow out of the U.S. Senate race last year.

"From the beginning there has been an effort to thwart the public from scrutinizing the activities of the attorney general's investigators and deputies in the underlying investigation and it continues to the present," Gentile wrote last week.

Gentile presented the judge with sworn affidavits from five former gaming regulators who believe they were caught in Del Papa's web of intrigue. All five urged the judge to unseal documents.

The ex-regulators, including former Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, who is regarded as a political enemy of the attorney general, want to know whether Del Papa improperly investigated them.

Bible, now president of the influential Nevada Resort Association, carries a lot of clout in Nevada. His father is the late Sen. Alan Bible, D-Nev.

But the others joining Bible in calling for the release of the documents have impressive resumes, as well. They are former Control Board member Gerald Cunningham, Rex Carlson, an ex-director of the board's electronics lab, and two former chiefs of enforcement, Ron Asher and Andy Vanyo.

In his court papers, Gentile told Mahan that the Sun and Channel 8 were seeking the documents as part of their duty "to see to it that questionable government activity is made known to the electorate."

The news organizations are trying to gain access to some 900 pages of documents recently turned over to Mike Anzalone, a former Del Papa investigator who has alleged he was forced to resign because he wouldn't participate in the intelligence probe.

Anzalone has filed suit against Del Papa for allegedly ruining his professional career.

He's hoping the suit ultimately will bring him justice. But first he'll get a chance to see some fireworks in Judge Mahan's courtroom on Tuesday.