Columnist Jeff German: Miller versus Jones proves to be quite entertaining

Friday, May 4, 2001 | 4:11 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.

IF YOU have any interest in City Hall politics, Steve Miller's defamation case against former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones will entertain you.

It also will give you a history lesson on the bizarre political climate here a decade ago.

Watching the trial unfold this week on television from the courtroom of District Judge Michael Cherry has been an amusing experience for me. Just the involvement of Miller, a former City Councilman who has a reputation for being on the wacky side, has been entertaining.

But there's another reason why this case has held my interest.

It turns out that Miller's entire argument hinges on a synopsis of a 1988 story I wrote about Miller that later appeared in a Jones campaign mailer. The story reported that Miller had alerted police to the discovery of a cocaine-like substance in a Porsche he had bought for his daughter. The substance was discovered while the car was being repaired in a body shop.

In court last week that story was blown up for the jury and the television audience to see, and it was diced and shredded by the lawyers a million different times.

I'm pleased to report that the article stood up to the intense scrutiny. Both sides agreed it was accurate.

What hasn't necessarily stood up is the way Jones made use of the story in an 11th-hour attack piece on Miller during the 1991 mayoral campaign between the two political figures.

The synopsis in the campaign flier erroneously suggested that the reported cocaine was "found in a car Miller was driving."

Jones went on to win the mayor's race by an overwhelming margin, and Miller blamed the mailer for his defeat.

Believing he falsely was made out to be a drug user, Miller filed suit against Jones. And for the next 10 years, he mounted a vicious public vendetta against the mayor, as his case languished in the court system.

Today neither Jones nor Miller are in public office. Jones served eight years as mayor and took a high-paying job as a senior executive at Harrah's Entertainment Inc. She remains one of the most influential women in Southern Nevada. Miller went on to run for lieutenant governor and twice for the City Council again, but lost all three races. Many now consider him a gadfly on the fringe of local politics.

Last week Miller got his long-sought-after day in court to prove that he was wronged by the Jones campaign.

Jones acknowledged on the witness stand that her campaign had erred in the synopsis, which she said should have pointed out the drug-like substance was found in a car Miller owned, rather than in one he was driving. But under the weight of persistent questioning from Miller's lawyer, Sam Harding, the former mayor insisted over and over that the mistake was innocent and not intended to portray Miller as a drug user.

Calm and polished, Jones was a very effective witness in her own defense. From her testimony you could see how Jones and her attorney, Bruce Laxalt, planned to turn things around on Miller during the trial and make him out to be a laughingstock.

Though it's impossible to predict what the jury ultimately will do, that's the direction I see the trial going.

We may be witnessing the demise of one of the more pathetic political figures in Southern Nevada history.

No one doubts Miller's honesty. But anyone familiar with his media antics and his 1991 mayoral campaign knows that the Jones mailer was not the reason he lost the race.

Miller's own campaign blunders cost him the election.

It's possible that when all of the evidence is presented, the jury will end up deciding that no one but Miller defamed Miller.

But then I've been wrong before.

In the meantime, there's still plenty of entertainment to come in this trial, friends. Happy watching.