Jury hears first barrage in Miller-Jones lawsuit

Wednesday, May 2, 2001 | 10:45 a.m.

Attorneys for former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and former Las Vegas Councilman Steve Miller have set the stage for what could be a nasty two-week battle treading on the reputations of both high-profile individuals.

Bruce Laxalt, Jones' attorney, told an eight-member civil jury that he believes that is exactly what Miller wants, arguing Miller "has announced his goal in life is to politically destroy Jan Jones."

The jury heard opening statements Tuesday in Miller's defamation lawsuit against Jones that concerns a flier the Jones campaign distributed days before the 1991 election that she won.

Laxalt admitted Jones' campaign put out the flier that erroneously said Miller "was driving" a car in which a substance that appeared to be cocaine was discovered. Miller owned the car but was not driving. Such an error, Laxalt said, is not libel, and the truth would have been worse for Miller.

"This case is about two words ... It is a case not about libel because the inaccuracy was minuscule and had no effect," Laxalt said. "Steve Miller lied to a detective, obscured justice and destroyed evidence of suspected cocaine so it could not be tested. The truth was a heck of a lot more damaging.

"This is a political vendetta by an ... obsessive man (against a) candidate who would not run away from him and would not let him run away from his own headlines."

Miller's attorney, Samuel Harding, said this "is a case of dirty politics" by Jones and her campaign that on May 3 -- four days before the election -- sent out the flier that used an accurate Sun story.

But, Harding said, the flier also included an inaccurate statement that "a police detective accuses Miller of giving false information in a report concerning cocaine found in a car Miller was driving."

Harding said the "reckless disregard" by Jones, who served as mayor from 1991 to 1999, ruined Miller's political career by making him out to be a drug courier or dealer.

Miller, who served on the City Council from 1987 to 1991 but failed in a bid for lieutenant governor in the mid-1990s, could not shake questions about the drug issue, Harding said. He noted that Miller also lost a lucrative position he was seeking with a local cab company. The taxi firm's owner is scheduled to testify that he turned Miller down because of the allegations raised in the campaign ad, Miller said.

"Mr. Miller was devastated being connected to drugs in that fashion," Harding said, noting he will present witnesses from Jones' campaign who will detail how the flier was created and distributed.

Harding said the flier was designed to be mass mailed late in the campaign "when Mr. Miller could not respond." He said Jones possibly would have won the mayoral race without the flier, noting "she didn't have to destroy Mr. Miller in the process."

Laxalt argued that Miller's reputation was not that sterling to begin with and that Miller's campaign blunders and other actions made him "a laughingstock."

Laxalt said that when Jones, a political neophyte and car dealership pitchwoman, entered the race, Miller had a big lead, yet he tried to dig up dirt on her, blasted her ethics and lost by his own actions, not because of a single flier.

The Miller-Jones libel case has bounced through the court system for 10 years. Eight local District Court judges recused themselves because of conflicts of interest. The case has twice gone to the Nevada Supreme Court, which threw out a District Court judge's ruling in favor of Jones, which included $20,000 in attorneys fees from Miller, and ordered the case go to trial in District Court.

The case hinges on whether the jury finds that the Jones campaign acted with malice when it used in the flier a reproduction of the 1988 Sun story that said Miller informed Metro Police that a small amount of what appeared to be cocaine had been discovered in a Porsche he had bought for a family member.

The substance was discovered while the car was in a body shop, and Laxalt said Miller told the shop owner to throw it away. The Sun article quoted a detective as saying he believed Miller was dishonest and gave false information about the alleged drugs.

The story also reported that the detective's supervisor had "read too much" into his conversation with Miller. But the part that was favorable to Miller was omitted from the flier.