Metro report: McDonald lied

Erin Neff

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

City Councilman Michael McDonald lied about the purpose of his May visit to the Las Vegas Sportspark and lied again when he said he never lobbied anyone about the potential sale of the recreation center to the city, according to a police report.

McDonald maintains he visited the park in May solely to scout out a facility to host a charity softball game. During the Aug. 16 council meeting, McDonald lambasted Sportspark partner Don Schlesinger for claiming the councilman's visit was to broker a sale of the center.

But that's not the story Metro Police got from other board members of McDonald's charity.

"No other members of the charity executive board can verify this story," Detective Michael Quick wrote in a report to the district attorney requesting that McDonald be prosecuted for misconduct in a public office and for asking for or receiving a bribe.

District Attorney Stewart Bell declined last week to prosecute the Sportspark charges and a separate charge of misconduct arising from a zoning matter involving a building owned by political consultant Sig Rogich. Bell and three other prosecutors decided they did not have enough evidence to obtain a conviction, and suggested the case was better suited for an ethics investigation.

But Metro maintains it had enough evidence to arrest McDonald for the criminal offenses based on witness accounts and a contract to sell the Sportspark.

For starters, Metro details how often McDonald spoke with city staff about the potential sale of the recreation center to the city.

Not only did he meet with City Manager Virginia Valentine about the possibility in June, McDonald repeatedly phoned her, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Councilman Larry Brown while they were in Baltimore on a business trip.

Then in July, McDonald approached Brown again, attempting to set up a meeting with Larry Scheffler about the sale of Sportspark. Scheffler is McDonald's boss at Las Vegas Color Graphics and one of three private partners in Sportspark.

Goodman told police McDonald approached County Commissioner Lance Malone to build support for using Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority money designated for the Fremont Street Experience to help the city buy Sportspark.

Malone told police he overheard McDonald talking to Goodman at an Aug. 8 LVCVA meeting about some park. Since Malone is involved in park projects, he asked what it was about and McDonald said: "The city is looking to buy the Sportspark."

McDonald denied lobbying anyone about Sportspark during the Aug. 16 council meeting.

"I've never lobbied a councilman," McDonald said. "Ask any, any councilman (if) I lobbied, please speak up."

When none of his colleagues answered, McDonald cut off the brief silence telling the television audience, "Thank you. I have never lobbied a councilman. So everybody's putting this as an article, that I've lobbied, you're wrong."

Detectives were convinced the behavior was lobbying, and an attempt to help Scheffler, his boss, get out of a pending financial crisis. Metro even photocopied definitions of the word lobby for the district attorney's consideration.

In addition to the alleged lobbying behind the scenes, McDonald also made the visit in May to Sportspark to tour the property with Scheffler, Crazy Horse Too strip club owner Rick Rizzolo and Rizzolo's attorney, Dean Patti.

Sportspark employee Dawn Barendt told police she remembers the visit clearly because she asked Schesinger, her boss, "Who are those Mafia-looking guys?"

Schlesinger told her that Sportspark partner Scheffler was looking to sell the financially strapped recreation center to the group. Barendt told police she never saw the group walk outside to tour softball fields.

Charity board member and Assistant District Attorney J. Charles Thompson told police a charity softball game was never discussed, but he was aware of a March 22 vote by the charity's board to hold an auction at Piero's restaurant.

When detectives went to Piero's, they were berated by Piero's owner Fred Glusman.

"He was very angry with us and claimed we were on a 'witch hunt' to get McDonald and Rizzolo because of what that 'black woman' (Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald) said," according to the police report.

Boggs McDonald raised the issue of McDonald's visit to Sportspark during the Aug. 16 meeting because she was concerned that she had not been kept in the loop about a project in her ward.

Metro's other investigation also details McDonald's behind-the-scenes actions on an item he had recused himself from because of personal conflicts of interest.

In that case, Detectives Paul Evans and Larry Hanna determined McDonald attempted to prevent the licensing of Rogich's building for a tavern, and thus violated a state law outlining misconduct by a public officer.

That investigation details the sudden emergence of the Church for Univeral Life Enhancement near the Rogich building. The church was run by Annette Marie Patterson, Rizzolo's sister and the bookkeeper at Crazy Horse.

Valentine told police she learned about the church shortly after the April 5 council vote on the Rogich building. She said she learned of the church either from media reports or from McDonald's ward liaison, Rick Henry.

Metro determined the first media reports about the church came in July.

Detectives tried to find out who helped the church open, especially since the church moved out as soon as media scrutiny began in late July.

Hollie Sphar, a property manager for Coldwell Banker, told police Patterson and three men came to her office March 24 to lease office space. She remembers one of the men was named Dean, was "outspoken" and "wore noticeable jewelry."

When detectives showed her a picture of Rizzolo's attorney, Dean Patti, Sphar confirmed he was one of the three men who accompanied Patterson. She could not recall the other two men.

Some allege McDonald helped the church find a location that would block Rogich's zoning request.

Police found he worked to thwart the request by asking two city surveyors to conduct additional measurements and by walking around City Hall with a map showing Rogich's building in relation to other taverns and adult businesses.

"Valentine said she warned McDonald about involving himself in the Rogich licensing as he had recused himself from that matter due to his personal affiliation with the parties involved," according to the police report.

Goodman told police he remembered McDonald being "very outspoken in his opposition to Rogich getting any type of licensing."

Bell declined to prosecute that case because he said McDonald was not trying to help a friend, but rather was trying to hurt another person. Bell said state law does not apply in the latter case.

Both Metro investigations were turned over to the Las Vegas Ethics Review Board on Tuesday after County Deputy District Attorney Mary-Anne Miller determined the detectives' work was public record.

Still, Metro was not altogether pleased that its work was simply turned over to an ethics board.

"We don't do ethics investigations, we do criminal investigations," Sheriff Jerry Keller said after prosecutors declined to move forward with the cases against McDonald.

The city ethics board meets Thursday to determine if there is enough evidence to hold a full hearing into allegations that McDonald misused his public office.

A recall effort also has been started against McDonald, with petitioners preparing to collect signatures from Ward 1 voters at the polls on Nov. 7.