Columnist jeff German: Del Papa not one to cross

Saturday, Feb. 17, 2001 | 11:34 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

THE DICTIONARY describes a vindictive person as someone who has a desire for revenge.

Some have suggested that the personality of Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa may fall within that definition.

In recent years Del Papa's apparent vindictiveness has been aimed at those who have brought to light her office's intelligence-gathering activities on former Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible and other regulators, her very own clients.

Insiders believe the secret intelligence probe was launched in December 1995 as a result of Del Papa's desire for revenge against Bible, who had clashed with her at the 1995 Legislature. Bible wasn't happy with the quality of legal services his office was getting from Del Papa's deputies and wanted the Legislature to let him hire his own lawyers. Ultimately, however, he backed away from his push.

But at the end of 1995, when unscrupulous informants with axes to grind against Bible and other regulators stopped by the attorney general's office claiming to have dirt on her clients, a still-miffed Del Papa eagerly assigned her good friend, Deputy Attorney General David Thompson, to soak up every filthy word.

Thompson did a lot of listening and a lot more.

According to Mike Anzalone, a former investigator in the attorney general's office, Thompson wanted Bible's bank records without a subpoena. That's illegal and it's a charge Thompson has denied.

Anzalone has alleged that Del Papa and Thompson forced him to resign in February 1996 because he refused to participate in the intelligence investigation of Bible and company.

After Anzalone had raised his allegations in an interview with me in March 1997, Del Papa appeared bent on revenge. She reportedly telephoned Anzalone and promised to drag him through the mud if he continued to talk about the Bible investigation.

Del Papa denied making that statement, but she promptly sent a letter to the Sun and anyone else who would listen in state government describing Anzalone as a disgruntled former employee. She also disclosed derogatory information in his personnel file.

Then Del Papa turned her attention to me, the messenger of the news she didn't want to hear. She wrote a letter to Anzalone maligning my news-gathering abilities.

About the same time, Thompson kept up the heat on Bible, who by then was wise to the secret investigation and was starting to vent his own anger in public.

Thompson sent the FBI a 21-page "confidential intelligence report" suggesting Bible and prominent elected officials could be bribed. The report was turned over while Bible was undergoing a routine FBI background check for a presidential appointment to a national gambling commission.

The FBI ended up giving President Clinton its blessing on the appointment, and we learned last week that the bureau didn't think much of the attorney general's intelligence report. No investigations were ever launched as a result of the sketchy information in the memorandum.

Del Papa's wrath also appears to have been aimed at Anzalone's hard-charging Phoenix lawyer, Christine Manno, who is suing the attorney general for Anzalone.

While Manno has fought in court the past three years to clear Anzalone's name and expose Del Papa's dirty dealings, the attorney general has unleashed her deputies on the Phoenix attorney.

Manno, though she has spent countless hours on the case, has been accused of filing a frivolous lawsuit.

Last month in a sworn deposition, Del Papa returned to attacking me. Several times she referred to my "propensity for misinformation and exaggerations" when reporting about the Anzalone case.

Once more she demonstrated signs of vindictiveness.

It's a dangerous mind-set if you happen to be the state's top law enforcement officer.

Just ask Bill Bible and Mike Anzalone.