Columnist Jeff German: Key witness in lawsuit against AG reported ill

Friday, April 13, 2001 | 3:30 a.m.

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

ALL EYES are watching the health of Frank Romano.

The man who sparked a secret attorney general's intelligence investigation of top gaming regulators is said to be too sick to answer questions under oath about his role in the controversial probe.

And that could have a key bearing on Mike Anzalone's lawsuit against Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa.

Romano -- a disgruntled slot route operator who lost his license in 1990 following a cheating scandal -- was scheduled to give a deposition in the well-publicized lawsuit last week.

But the attorney general's office informed Anzalone's Phoenix lawyer, Christine Manno, that Romano's illness was preventing him from being deposed. Romano reportedly had a heart transplant several years ago.

Anzalone, a former Del Papa investigator, is suing the attorney general for forcing him to resign because he wouldn't participate in the intelligence investigation.

Romano is considered a key witness in the suit because records show that Del Papa's trusted deputy, David Thompson, relied upon Romano's long-discarded allegations to justify going after the likes of former Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible. At the time, Bible was at odds politically with Del Papa.

Bible's April 30 deposition in the Anzalone case also reportedly has been postponed.

In 1990 Bible had pushed hard to revoke Romano's license. But Romano fought back, hiring a Florida private detective to dig up dirt on Bible and his fellow Control Board members.

Eventually a report of the detective's findings wound up in Bible's hands, and Bible asked then-Attorney General Brian McKay to investigate the allegations. McKay later found no merit to the claims.

By 1996, however, in the middle of Bible's rift with Del Papa, the attorney general's office took a new interest in Romano's claims. Suddenly Del Papa investigators began poring over Bible's property and automobile records.

Romano himself later acknowledged in an interview with investigators that Bible had "clean hands," but the scrutiny of Bible and other regulators continued until 1998.

Today new information is surfacing about Bible's decade-old clash with Romano that may be relevant to Anzalone's lawsuit.

I've obtained a copy of a stunning letter Bible sent to McKay on Feb. 22, 1990, that raises more questions about Romano's character and whether Del Papa improperly relied upon Romano to impugn the reputations of Bible and company.

In the two-page letter, Bible revealed an apparent blackmail plot by Romano to obtain a more favorable settlement from the Control Board during Romano's 1990 disciplinary proceedings.

Bible wrote that Romano had hired a Washington lobbyist to approach Jean Neal, the top aide of then-Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., to put pressure on Bible to go easy on the slot route operator.

Neal reported that the lobbyist, James McCarthy, had indicated that if Romano did not get a more favorable licensing settlement, "improprieties" at the Control Board would be made public, Bible said.

"(McCarthy) further told Ms. Neal that his client had hired a private investigator and that the private investigator had uncovered some information that was potentially embarrassing to the state, individuals that Sen. Bryan had appointed as governor, and to the Democratic Party," Bible wrote.

"Mr. McCarthy also stated that if the settlement matter was not resolved, he might be forced to go public with the information."

Bible described the Capitol Hill incident as a failed effort by Romano to "improperly influence the board."

It's an incident Romano surely will be asked about if he's ever well-enough to take questions under oath.