Del Papa’s office accused of ‘governmental abuse’

Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2001 | 10:45 a.m.

The Nevada attorney general's office committed "governmental abuse at its most egregious level," a lawyer for former state investigator Mike Anzalone charged in court papers late Monday.

The lawyer, Christine Manno of Phoenix, filed a 67-page brief detailing how the attorney general's office reportedly forced Anzalone to resign in February 1996 because he wouldn't participate in a secret intelligence investigation of top gaming regulators.

Anzalone filed suit against Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and her office in February 1998, alleging that he was defamed because of his reluctance to go along with what he described as the unlawful probe.

"In this matter, the office of the attorney general, the chief law enforcement office of the state, went trolling for dirt on their own client, the Gaming Control Board," Manno wrote. "While doing so, they trampled on the rights of not only the plaintiff, but the citizens of the state of Nevada and violated the law in an effort to find evidence of corruption.

"Apparently the only corruption that can be found through all of this investigation is that of the attorney general's office."

Manno filed her brief, along with hundreds of pages of recently taken depositions of key figures in the well-publicized case, including Del Papa, in response to a motion by Del Papa's office for a summary judgment.

Del Papa contends no laws were broken by her office and that the office has immunity for its actions and can't be sued by Anzalone.

But Manno argued that Nevada law does not give the attorney general immunity when allegations of governmental abuse are raised.

"These defendants lied about the events and the individuals involved for more than three years until they were forced to reveal their improper and illegal actions as a result of plaintiff's lawsuit," Manno charged.

"Even then, these defendants attempted to to rely upon semantics to explain that no investigation of Gaming Control Board members or gaming in general occurred, when it was clear that, as plaintiff has maintained since his forced resignation, that an illegal intelligence investigation of the Gaming Control Board was conducted by the defendants beginning in January 1996.

"In retaliation for plaintiff's honesty and attempt to bring this illegal activity to the attention of his superiors, the defendants have accused plaintiff of misconduct and theft of official documents and have destroyed his lifelong career in law enforcement," Manno said.

"Defendants now claim that they are immune from such wrongdoing and illegal activity. Immunity does not apply to these defendants."

Anzalone alleged in his lawsuit that the intelligence probe evolved out of the criminal investigation into the slot cheating activities of Ron Harris, a former Control Board electronics expert.

In August 1996, several months after Anzalone was removed from the investigation, Harris pleaded guilty and cooperated in the probe, which had turned its attention to the Control Board employees who had built the case against the electronics expert.

Prior to gaining the help of Harris, Deputy Attorney David Thompson, a close Del Papa friend assigned to spearhead the investigation, secretly had begun pursuing allegations that then Control Board Chairman Bill Bible and other regulators and elected officials had taken bribes.

Bible, who had been pushing the hardest to prosecute Harris, earlier had clashed with Del Papa during the 1995 Legislature over the attorney general's failure to provide solid legal assistance to the Control Board. The two have been at odds politically since then.

Even Anzalone, whose investigative efforts in the Harris case were praised by Bible at the time, was targeted in the probe by Thompson, who reportedly was operating under the assumption that Anzalone somehow was linked to the Harris slot cheating scheme.

During the course of the secret investigation, videotapes of Thompson's debriefing of Harris were leaked to the news media. The tapes, which contained unsubstantiated allegations about gaming regulators, were made public while Bible was undergoing an FBI background check for a presidential appointment to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.

Thompson during this period also gave the FBI a secret 21-page intelligence report with uncorroborated accusations about Bible and other prominent Nevadans tied to the casino industry.

Anzalone and other Control Board employees, including Bible, now president of the influential Nevada Resort Association, never were charged in the slot cheating investigation. And Bible was appointed to the federal gambling commission.

Later, Anzalone filed suit to restore his reputation.

Manno said in her brief that Anzalone, who worked for the attorney general for three years, has had an "impeccable employment record" as a law enforcement officer since 1968.

She alleged that her client was forced to resign from the attorney general's office because he refused to obtain the bank records of Bible and other regulators without a subpoena, which is illegal in Nevada.

"Plaintiff believed that such an intelligence investigation was beyond the authority of the attorney general's office," she said.

Anzalone, who now works as an investigator in Florida, was physically escorted out of the attorney general's office in the presence of his co-workers after he had agreed to resign, Manno explained.

"This caused plaintiff to suffer embarrassment and humiliation personally and professionally," Manno said, "and impaired his ability to obtain employment in his profession."

A year later, after Anzalone was quoted in a Sun story about the secret intelligence probe, Anzalone received a threatening phone call from Del Papa, who told him he would be dragged through the mud if he continued to talk to reporters, Manno said.

Then the attorney general wrote a letter to the Sun in which she released confidential personnel information about Anzalone that he said was false.

Del Papa and Thompson contend they lost confidence in Anzalone after key documents were missing from the Harris file he had turned over to Thompson, when the prosecutor was assigned the case. Anzalone has denied purging the file.

Manno said the attorney general's office subsequently violated Anzalone's civil rights when it sought his credit union records by a faxed request in 1996 rather than a subpoena.

Anzalone's rights were further violated, when the office used an "administrative subpoena" to obtain his cellular phone records, as part of the criminal proceedings involving Harris. Officially, Anzalone was not regarded as a target in the Harris probe at the time.

"These violations demonstrate defendants' unbridle willingness to violate the law to obtain information they desire," Manno charged in her brief. "Defendants' believe not only that they are above the law, but that they are immune from any remedial action taken by plaintiff in response to defendants' actions against him."

The attorney general's office has several days to respond in writing to Manno's brief.

District Judge James Mahan has scheduled a Feb. 26 hearing on the attorney general's motion for summary judgment.