Columnist Jeff German: Tyson’s troubles likely to worsen

Friday, Feb. 1, 2002 | 4:12 a.m.

YOU HEARD the forecasts of gloom and doom heading into last week's Mike Tyson hearing.

Las Vegas would lose $100 million to $300 million if the Nevada Athletic Commission failed to give the troubled Tyson a license to fight heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis April 6 at the MGM Grand.

And that would be disastrous to a city dealing with slumping tourism and casino industry layoffs in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The five members of the Nevada Athletic Commission went into the nationally televised Tyson hearing with those dire predictions ringing in their ears.

From the sidelines, tourism point man Rob Powers found himself fending off reporters determined to stress the financial downside of turning down Tyson.

"They kind of latched onto this idea that Las Vegas would be devastated if the fight didn't occur," he said.

Even the public's prevailing opinion was that the commission had little choice but to license Tyson -- for the financial well-being of the fight capital of the world.

But as it turned out the commission had another choice. In a 4-1 vote it gave the boot to Tyson and the millions he likely would have brought Las Vegas on April 6.

The panel decided it wasn't going to license the ear-biting, obscenity-shouting, convicted rapist. Money never even played a role in the vote.

And now most tourism officials are betting Las Vegas will survive without Tyson.

MGM executives already are reported to be luring another big name, legendary singer Paul McCartney, to town that day to serenade us in Tyson's absence.

That's good news for tourism officials, who can look forward to "No More Lonely Nights" thinking about what a Lewis-Tyson fight would have meant to Las Vegas.

"The fight was not a make-or-break event for Las Vegas," Powers said. "We're continuing to recover from the events of Sept. 11, and not having the fight won't hurt the recovery process."

As for Tyson, he might not be as fortunate.

Metro Police are pushing to charge the unstable former champ in two sexual assault cases.

District Attorney Stewart Bell, one of the most thorough administrators ever to hold the job, is deciding whether enough evidence can be gathered by police to prosecute Tyson.

He's putting a lot of painstaking effort into that decision.

Last week Bell, who retires at the end of this year, even invited the three deputies running for his job to sit in on a police presentation of the Tyson case.

The three prosecutors -- Assistant District Attorney Mike Davidson and Chief Deputy District Attorneys David Roger and Abby Silver -- were asked to join a long list of seasoned deputies advising Bell in the probe.

If charges are filed, the case will spill over into the next administration, and Bell wants to make sure his successor is in the loop from the beginning in what likely will be the most well-publicized criminal case of all time in Las Vegas.

Tyson and his battery of lawyers can take comfort in knowing that Bell isn't a prosecutor who will go after someone for the sake of publicity. That has never been his style.

But at the same time, if he does file charges, Tyson better start ducking.

The district attorney isn't likely to approve a criminal case unless he knows he's got a knockout punch in court. He's going to want the kind of firepower to keep the former champ on the canvas of justice long after the 10-count.

Tyson should remember one other thing.

In the past several years, Bell has gone through this meticulous decision-making process in only two other other high-profile cases -- those involving the deaths of Ted Binion and Ron Rudin. In both cases, Bell ended up filing charges and obtaining convictions.

So if you're looking for any gloom and doom from last week's Nevada Athletic Commission hearing, you might want to keep an eye on Tyson, not Las Vegas.com