Another former AG investigator alleges secret intelligence probe

Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2001 | 10:59 a.m.

Another former investigator with the attorney general's office has stepped forward to allege that bank records of top Gaming Control Board members were unlawfully sought in a secret intelligence probe.

Gary Wright, who worked for the Nevada attorney general from 1993-1997, said in a sworn affidavit that a fellow investigator told him in January 1996 that the records were to be obtained without a subpoena, which is against state law.

The records, Wright said, were requested by Deputy Attorney General David Thompson, who had been assigned to spearhead the intelligence investigation by Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa.

Wright said the fellow investigator, Ronald Wheatley, told him that Thompson wanted the bank records of then Control Board Chairman Bill Bible and board member Steve DuCharme.

Bible, a Del Papa political adversary, now is president of the influential Nevada Resort Association, and DuCharme recently retired as Bible's successor at the helm of the Control Board.

Wright's affidavit was filed in District Court late Monday in support of a 3-year-old lawsuit against Del Papa and her office by former investigator Mike Anzalone, who has alleged he was forced to resign because he wouldn't participate in the intelligence probe. A July 10 trial date in the suit has been set in District Judge James Mahan's courtroom.

Anzalone charged in the suit that Thompson had asked him to secretly obtain telephone and bank records of Bible and other board members in December 1995.

Both Anzalone and Wright said they refused to get the records without a subpoena and subsequently were removed from the investigation. Both said they did not know whether the records ultimately were obtained.

Thompson and Wheatley, in sworn affidavits, have denied seeking the records without a subpoena. And others connected to the case, including Del Papa and Thompson, have insisted that no laws were broken by the attorney general's office.

The secret Control Board investigation, which never resulted in the filing of charges against Bible and DuCharme, sprang from the criminal probe into the slot-cheating activities of Ron Harris, a former Control Board computer expert.

At the same time the investigation was taking place, another arm of the attorney general's office was continuing to provide legal advice on routine gaming matters to the Control Board.

Harris pleaded guilty in August 1996 and gave Thompson derogatory information on the Control Board agents who helped Anzalone build the case against the board's former electronics whiz. Anzalone also became a target of the investigation.

Months earlier, independent of Harris, Thompson sought to substantiate allegations that Bible and others tied to the casino industry had taken bribes.

"Mr. Wheatley informed me that Mr. Thompson wanted bank records of Bill Bible, and Steve DuCharme, and since I had a background in banking, I should obtain these records," Wright wrote in his three-page affidavit. "Once I obtained the records, I was to provide them directly to Mr. Wheatley.

"I informed Mr. Wheatley that I would need a grand jury subpoena to obtain these records, and Mr. Wheatley said I should obtain them without a subpoena. I informed Mr. Wheatley that I could get arrested for that, and Mr. Wheatley said not to worry because the attorney general would take care of it."

Wright said he also had a discussion about the bank records with Thompson in late February or early March.

"Mr. Thompson asked me if I had obtained the bank records yet, and I informed him that I needed a subpoena," Wright said. "Mr. Thompson ignored my request for a subpoena and simply informed me to get the records right away because the attorney general would be very upset if that wasn't done."

Shortly after that conversation, Wright explained, he was taken off the case and replaced by another investigator, Gary Kuramoto.

Wright said his immediate supervisor at the time, Dorinda Hollenbeck, told him the investigation of the Control Board members "had come from the attorney general herself."

"Ms. Hollenbeck stated that this was an extremely confidential intelligence investigation," Wright said.

Hollenbeck denied using the word intelligence in a sworn affidavit.

Del Papa initially denied conducting an intelligence investigation, but documents in the attorney general's own files later surfaced in Anzalone's lawsuit to confirm the existence of the probe. That forced Del Papa to acknowledge the investigation.

In April Judge Mahan ordered the release of hundreds of pages of documents, including a 1996 confidential intelligence report written by Wheatley that contained unsubstantiated allegations about Bible, other regulators and elected officials.

The 21-page report, which was made public at the request of the Sun and KLAS Channel 8, suggested without corroboration that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., former Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and former Nevada Gov. Bob Miller all were susceptible to taking bribes in gaming matters.

Thompson ended up turning over the report, which has been condemned by the named elected officials, to the FBI at the end of March 1997. That was about the same time Bible was undergoing a routine background investigation by the FBI for a well-publicized appointment to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.

Bible, who clashed with Del Papa in the 1995 Legislature, also has criticized the intelligence investigation.

After the report was made public, Del Papa acknowledged for the first time that her office indeed had investigated Bible, the son of a former U.S. senator and one of the more widely respected bureaucrats ever in state government.

"A limited search of public records concerning real estate holdings and automobile title and registration information was conducted," she said in a news release.

Del Papa said the "inquiry" concluded that the allegations against Bible were unfounded.

Bible is said to be contemplating a lawsuit against Del Papa.

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