State formally denies wiretap accusations

Thursday, May 11, 2000 | 11:27 a.m.

The Nevada attorney general's office formally denied an accusation that Metro Police conducted illegal wiretaps of defense attorneys' telephones in the Billy Walters sports gambling case.

Instead, the state blamed the flap on a series of strange events caused by a loose wire.

The state filed its denial Wednesday in Clark County District Court in response to a defense motion that sought to dismiss an indictment against Walters and three co-defendants because of the alleged wiretaps. Walters, along with Jimmie Hanley, Daniel Pray and John Tognino, is accused of funneling money and information to and from illegal bookmakers nationwide.

"To suggest that Metro officers or members of the attorney general's staff would engage in felony unauthorized wiretapping is irresponsible, ludicrous and unsupported by any credible evidence," Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said in a prepared statement. "The unsubstantiated allegations are supported only by (defense) attorney (Richard) Wright's 'sworn beliefs.' His beliefs do not constitute evidence, and are completely at odds with the facts."

Wright, however, said he didn't buy the state's position. He added that "I don't particularly believe anything they have told me for three years," in connection with the Walters case that dates back to 1996.

Attorneys for Walters, a prominent local golf course developer and political campaign contributor, and the co-defendants alleged that a taped conversation in their possession confirms the wiretaps. The attorney general's office confirmed that the voices on the tape belonged to Metro Detective Russ White and Dianne Deiss, a police department law enforcement technician. White and Deiss work for the county's Secret Witness Program.

But the state said White, who can be heard on the tape referring to a wiretap of "one of the attorney's offices ... that they're doing on Billy Walters," erroneously came to that conclusion because of crossed telephone lines.

"It sounds implausible," Wright said. "I don't buy it, but that's what hearings are for."

District Judge Mark Gibbons has scheduled a Wednesday hearing to consider the defense motion and state response.

White said in an affidavit that he had an April 25 telephone conversation with corporate investigator William Hengler Jr. of America West Airlines in Las Vegas to discuss Secret Witness business related to the airline industry.

"While I was talking to Billy I heard a conversation, probably 20-30 seconds worth and I didn't pay much attention except I did catch the name Billy Walters," White said. "At that time I told Billy Hengler, I said 'just hang up the phone.' "

Hengler said in a separate affidavit that after they had talked for about 30 minutes they heard some clicking. Hengler recalled joking that Metro Internal Affairs was "hooking up the wire."

"Within about 30 seconds, with a little more clicking, Russ and I both heard a female voice come on the line and she asked, 'who are you?' " Hengler said. "I'm not positive, but I believe Russ White might have told her that he was with Metro. I heard her say, 'well you're coming in on this line and this is a law office that represents Billy Walters.' "

After hanging up, White said he called Deiss, thinking he had stumbled onto a wiretap. He said he asked her to check with Metro's intelligence unit to ask if they were performing a wiretap on Walters. He said he simply wanted to warn intelligence that if they were doing a wiretap, it was coming through on his line.

"Me not being aware of how wiretaps work, I just assumed at the time that that's what was going on," White said.

Deiss said in an affidavit that White first informed her about problems with his phone the day before his conversation with Hengler.

"Russ told me on several instances where this kept happening every time he would make a call and someone else would come on the line," Deiss said.

The attorney general's office said the phone line used by White was crossed with that of defense attorney JoNell Thomas while service was being performed at Sprint telephone company's main switching building at 125 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

John Paulnick, district manager of Sprint's central office maintenance and special services, said Wednesday that the service was being performed on a terminal block, a panel that is about 1 foot wide and 8 inches deep. The panel, which helps to connect outside phone cables to the telephone company's switching building, contains rows of electrical connections. Insulated jumper wire that includes exposed copper wire on each end is tied to a pair of connections to activate a single telephone line.

Paulnick said repairmen usually have to clip spare wire from the ends of the jumper wire to make it fit the connections. About once or twice a day, however, he said a wire clipping may accidentally fall from one terminal block to other terminal blocks below, where connections for other phone lines are contained.

In this case, he said a clipped copper wire that was about an inch long inadvertently fell onto two adjacent sets of connections that serve the phone lines for the offices of White and Thomas. The two sets of connections are only about one-quarter inch apart. When the wire made contact with the two sets of connections, it created a party line between the two phone lines, Paulnick said. The problem was corrected when the spare wire was removed, he said.

Deputy Attorney General David Thompson, the lead prosecutor in the case, argued in his brief that the tape obtained by Wright should be deemed inadmissible as evidence because the defense attorney has not disclosed where he got the tape or whether it includes only a "snippet" of a longer conversation.

"The defendants and their attorneys owe LVMP (Las Vegas Metro Police) and the public of Clark County an apology for their irresponsible and unfounded charges," Thompson wrote. "It remains to be seen whether they have the moral fiber to admit that they were wrong, and try to make up for some of the damage they have caused by their reckless and malicious allegations."

Defense lawyers do not believe the state's reasoning, however, and have accused Metro of a coverup.

Wright said that when he first contacted Hengler after hearing his name on the tape, the airline employee told him "he never heard of Walters."

"Of course, that's before he talked to Metro," Wright said. "His lawyers won't let him talk to me."

He also said it would have been impossible for Thomas or anyone in her office to claim that they were Walters' attorney. That's because Wright is representing Walters.

"She's the attorney for Daniel Pray," Wright said. "She doesn't say she's the office that represents Bill Walters because she doesn't represent him."

Steve Kanigher is a staff writer for the Sun. He can be reached at (702)-259-4075 or by e-mail at steve@lasvegassun.com