Nevada officers plead guilty in FBI scandal

Friday, Oct. 26, 2001 | 9:37 a.m.

Two Nevada law enforcement officers arrested in the secrets-for-sale scandal that rocked the Las Vegas FBI office pleaded guilty this week to federal conspiracy charges in New York.

Maria Emeterio, 34, a former investigator with the Nevada attorney general's office, and Mary Ellen Weeks, 43, a suspended Las Vegas Municipal Court intake services officer, each pleaded guilty to one federal count of conspiring to steal FBI records, authorities said Thursday.

Both face up to five years in prison and are expected to be sentenced in February, said Stephen King, the assistant U.S. Attorney handling the case in New York.

Nevada investigators working with King now are planning to interview the two women, each free on $50,000 bail, in their criminal probe into the theft of confidential FBI information.

The state probe was launched after Emeterio and Weeks were arrested in the New York investigation, which focused on the efforts of private detective Mike Levin to obtain stolen Las Vegas FBI records. Emeterio and Weeks were charged with selling classified documents to Levin.

Jerry Hafen, supervisor of the Las Vegas office of the Nevada Division of Investigations, said Emeterio and Weeks still could face state charges for stealing confidential records from the FBI's National Crime Information Center, a computerized database used by law enforcement agencies across the country.

Investigators are hoping to question Emeterio and Weeks about evidence that some of the NCIC records they allegedly stole wound up in the hands of several Las Vegas lawyers, Hafen said.

"Others still are under investigation," Hafen said. "There's some indication that information may have been given to people who ordinarily wouldn't be allowed access to it."

Emeterio allegedly provided most of her information to the lawyers through Levin, a former Las Vegas FBI agent who pleaded guilty to the theft of FBI records following his arrest in New York in June.

One attorney, however, may have received NCIC records directly from Weeks, Hafen said.

Hafen said investigators could end up charging some of the Las Vegas lawyers.

A second former investigator in the attorney general's office, Haven said, also remains under scrutiny. The investigator, who is good friends with Emeterio, may have been given "hush money" to help cover up Emeterio's dealings with Levin.

The guilty pleas of Emeterio and Weeks follow those of several others in the New York probe, such as James J. Hill, a former security analyst at the Las Vegas FBI office.

Federal authorities alleged that Hill, 51, who had direct access to the FBI's sensitive computer system, sold Levin stolen documents for thousands of dollars from 1999 until his arrest in June. Levin in turn, authorities said, sold the information to criminal defendants, including organized crime members.

Levin, in federal custody in New York, began cooperating with the FBI shortly after he was taken into custody on June 14. His undercover work led to the arrests of Hill, Emeterio, Weeks and several others in New York.

Both Emeterio, who resigned from the attorney general's office following her arrest, and Weeks, who is on leave without pay at Municipal Court, reportedly had been providing Levin with classified NCIC information for months.

King said his office in New York has been working closely with Nevada investigators.

"We've been in touch with them throughout this investigation," he said. "They've been very helpful."