Court is urged to revive indictment against Walters

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2001 | 8:51 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A deputy attorney general urged the Nevada Supreme Court Monday to reinstate a Clark County Grand Jury indictment of money laundering and illegal betting against Las Vegas gambler and businessman Billy Walters.

Deputy Attorney General David Thompson told the court that District Judge Mark Gibbons made seven legal errors when he dismissed the grand jury indictment against Walters and associates Daniel Pray and James Hanley.

This was the third grand jury indictment against Walters gained by the office of Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, who sat in the audience to witness the oral argument.

Richard Wright, attorney for Walters, argued that "highly inflammatory" statements were made to the grand jury that "destroyed their independence." Those statements would not have been allowed at a trial and never should have been made to the grand jury, he said.

Gibbons, in dismissing the indictment, found there was "only marginal and slight evidence" to go to trial. And the prejudicial evidence required that the indictment be dismissed, Wright said.

The attorney general's office claims Walters and the two employees had a telephone room where 4,000 to 12,000 calls were made a month, placing bets with illegal bookmakers in New York.

Hanley allegedly collected the winnings, and Pray maintained the books, Thompson said. The evidence, he said, included tape recording of the telephone conversations that the employees made themselves.

The first Clark County indictment of Walters was dismissed by a district judge but reinstated by the Supreme Court. That indictment is pending in Clark County District Court. While that case was being reviewed by the Supreme Court, the attorney general's office sought and got a second grand jury indictment.

The second grand jury indictment was also dismissed by a district judge, and the Supreme Court affirmed that decision. The attorney general's office asked for a re-hearing, which is pending before the Supreme Court; the third indictment was returned in November 1999, and it was the subject of Monday's hearing.