Columnist Jeff German: Lawyer spreads blame in FBI case

Friday, June 29, 2001 | 4:25 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.

ENTERTAINMENT law is Barry Levinson's specialty.

Some might say that Levinson, who also is knowledgeable about criminal law, has provided an entertaining thought or two while vigorously defending a now-notorious client in the FBI's secrets-for-sale scandal.

Since June 14, when his client, FBI security analyst James J. Hill, was arrested on charges of selling top-secret FBI information, Levinson has loudly proclaimed Hill's innocence and suggested others were responsible for the leaks.

Last week Levinson's prediction came true when the FBI in New York charged eight more people in the scandal, including Maria Emeterio, an investigator for the Nevada attorney general's office, and Mary Ellen Weeks, a Las Vegas Municipal Court intake services officer.

Emeterio and Weeks were accused of giving former FBI agent Mike Levin, a Las Vegas private detective, sensitive files from the bureau's National Crime Information Center, a computerized database for law enforcement's eyes only.

The 36-year-old Levin, once regarded as an FBI outcast because of misconduct as an agent, has become the star witness in the ongoing probe of leaks at the Las Vegas field office. He has told FBI agents that Hill, who had direct access to the FBI's computer system, gave him hundreds of classified documents that he then sold to FBI defendants and targets, including organized crime members.

Levinson contends it was impossible for Hill to have turned over that many documents. So that means to Levinson that others at the FBI must have cooperated with the smooth-talking Levin.

"My client didn't give out all of the documents the FBI is saying he did," Levinson says. "There has to be somebody else at the FBI who was doing it."

The FBI has remained mum on the possibility that others within its ranks aided Levin. But rumors are flying.

And Levinson is doing his part to keep the talk alive.

"So far all of the people Levin squealed out were low-level people," Levinson says. "He's not telling the whole story. There are a lot more people that he's not ready to fry yet."

Levinson says Hill told him that Levin, even though he had resigned from the FBI under fire because of alleged misuse of government credit cards, still had friends in the local office and often dropped by to visit them.

"And I know other people from the FBI office went to visit Mike at his office, too," Levinson says.

Late last week, before Hill began his journey to New York in the custody of U.S. marshals, Levinson claimed his client told him that Levin bragged about having contacts everywhere, including Metro Police and Sprint.

But Levinson has yet to confirm that.

Meanwhile, at the attorney general's office and Municipal Court, internal reviews into the activities of Emeterio and Weeks have been launched in the wake of their arrests. Emeterio has resigned, and Weeks is on paid administrative leave.

Efforts also are under way to determine whether the two women also may have compromised the Nevada Criminal Justice Information System, the state's computerized database.

As for Levin, he pleaded guilty in New York last week to conspiracy, theft and obstruction of justice charges and remains behind bars in Brooklyn.

Levin presumably has struck a deal with FBI agents and prosecutors in New York that will give him a lighter prison term when this case eventually blows over.

It's ironic that Levin, once shunned by his FBI colleagues because of past misdeeds, now finds his future in their hands.

And it's likely that he doesn't have too many friends in law enforcement here anymore.

Barry Levinson might find that entertaining.