Officer spoke of possible wiretap

Jeff German and Steve Kanigher

Thursday, May 4, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

The man who runs Metro Police's Secret Witness program is one of the voices on a tape-recorded phone conversation suggesting police were wiretapping defense lawyers in the Billy Walters money-laundering case, the Sun has learned.

Detective Russ White, Metro sources said, is overheard on the tape instructing a secretary to contact the intelligence unit to find out whether any wiretaps were being used.

White told the secretary he believed he had stumbled onto a wiretap in the Walters case while talking with Billy Hengler, an investigator for America West Airlines, on April 24.

Police Wednesday denied conducting any illegal wiretaps on the lawyers, who have obtained a tape of White's conversation with the secretary.

Secret Witness routinely records its calls, but Metro sources said police so far don't believe the tape of White and his secretary was made by the police department. As of Wednesday night, the sources said, police did not have a copy of the tape.

Metro's administration is reported to be conducting an internal investigation into who may have recorded the conversation, how the tape wound up in the hands of defense attorneys, and what White overheard about the Walters case in his conversation with Hengler.

The police investigation is taking place to respond to court motions filed this week by attorneys for Walters.

Police sources said White may have misinterpreted what he had heard on the other line.

White would not comment Wednesday and referred a call from the Sun to Metro's public information officer who in turn passed the inquiry to Deputy Chief Mike Hawkins.

Hawkins said Wednesday that Metro "has not and will not conduct a wiretap without having an order signed by a judge." When asked if police performed any unauthorized wiretaps in the Walters case, Hawkins said that "absolutely did not happen."

But Hawkins added that he could not confirm whether any legal wiretaps were authorized because to do so would violate state and federal disclosure laws.

"The department will respond to the motion filed by counsel to Mr. Walters through the court system," Hawkins said. He added that Metro looks forward to its day in court.

Walters and three co-defendants, Jimmie Hanley, Daniel Pray and John Tognino, were indicted last November by a Clark County grand jury and accused of consorting with illegal bookmakers by funneling money and information in connection with a sports betting operation.

In a motion filed Tuesday in Clark County District Court, defense attorneys alleged that they were targets of illegal wiretaps and believe the indictments should be dismissed for that reason. They made their allegation based on a tape recording that they believe involves two unidentified Metro employees. One of the employees is heard referring to wiretaps to "one of the attorney's offices...that they're doing on Billy Walters."

Asked why he thought Walters attorney Richard Wright and fellow defense lawyers would allege an illegal wiretap, Hawkins said: "Mr. Wright is in the defense attorney business. He is trying to defend his client." Wright responded that he was not surprised Metro would deny an alleged unauthorized wiretap.

"They deny committing a crime?" Wright said. "Surprise, surprise. All I know is what's on the tape. The circumstances by which I acquired the tape lead me to believe that a male police officer's voice was on the tape."

Wright conceded that it "was not beyond the realm of possibility" that Metro would try to make legal wiretaps of him or fellow defense attorneys John Moran Jr. and JoNell Thomas based on prosecution accusations that District Judge Donald Mosley was overly friendly with the defense team.

Mosley was the presiding judge when the first two indictments against Walters and his co-defendants were dropped. It wasn't until last month, six months after a third indictment was handed down against Walters, that Mosley recused himself from the case. He cited an erosion of public trust based on news coverage of the case for his decision. It was reported that Mosley had a friendship with Moran that included hunting trips.

But the defense team denied that they sought favorable treatment from Mosley or had any out-of-court conversations with the judge regarding the case.