Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2003 | 11:20 a.m.
What was expected this morning to be a bail hearing for one of the alleged 311 Boyz turned into a contentious court battle in which a prosecutor and defense attorney argued over how the case has played out in the local and national media.
At a hearing for 18-year-old Steven Gazlay, Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent accused Gazlay's attorney, James "Bucky" Buchanan, of trying to "spin" his client's image in the media.
Buchanan countered the prosecutor was trying to "manipulate" the case by releasing videotapes of the alleged 311 Boyz fighting.
The arguments were the latest attacks in a case that has garnered national media attention. The attorneys leveled the charges during a routine bail hearing, but neither one asked the judge to take action.
Laurent said Buchanan was attempting to portray his client as a "good boy" in the media by having Gazlay change his appearance and shave his goatee.
Actually, Laurent said, Gazlay is responsible for at least three separate violent assaults, including the maiming of a 17-year-old boy.
"(Buchanan) is changing him," Laurent said. "He's a spin doctor at this point."
Buchanan argued that his client spoke to the media in an effort to clear his name after videotapes of the teens engaging in dozens of fistfights surfaced in the national and local media. Gazlay appeared on "The Today Show" and several other national news programs proclaiming his innocence, Buchanan said.
Buchanan said his client has "done an admirable job" representing himself to the media.
"He's trying to show what type of person he is, that he's not a bad kid," he said. "Maybe that was wrong on my part, but I thought that was the right thing to do at the time."
Mary Hausch, assistant professor of communications at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said both prosecutors and defense attorneys have used the media to their advantage.
"I think there's no innocent party here in terms of using the media," she said. "I think both sides have been shameless in doing it."
She said Buchanan's attempt to portray Gazlay in a positive light in the media is "standard operating procedure in criminal cases."
"Anybody would have their client shave, buy a suit, cut their hair," she said. "Those are normal things to do."
She thought that Gazlay had come across as a "pretty presentable person."
This morning's hearing was on charges of battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm alleging that Gazlay heated a butter knife until it was orange and burned another teenager with it.
"It's amazing that he hasn't been caught before this time," Laurent said.
Gazlay was indicted on the charge last week and bail was set at $50,000 at that time. During this morning's hearing, District Judge Valorie Vega denied Buchanan's motion to lower the bail to the $16,000 Gazlay had already posted in the case in Justice Court.
Gazlay has two days to post the bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.
Gazlay and nine other teens face 13 felony counts in an incident in Summerlin in which Stephen Tanner Hansen was injured. Prosecutors say Hansen's face was crushed when one of the teens threw a rock through the windshield of the car in which he was riding. He has had to undergo several reconstructive surgeries.
Gazlay also faces one count each of battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm and assault with use of a deadly weapon in a separate incident in which he is charged with beating two teens with a crowbar.
Buchanan said his client was not involved in that incident. He said the real perpetrator had not been arrested and that he was bragging about the crime. Buchanan said he thinks a videotape of that incident could eventually surface that would prove Gazlay is innocent.
"A videotape of that would show that he's not related to the crime," he said.
He said Gazlay was in jail at the time of the butter knife incident.
Laurent said Gazlay had also been visiting Jeff Hart at the Clark County Detention Center. Hart is the only teen still in custody stemming from the attack on Hansen. Gazlay and the other teens are out on a $40,000 bond on those charges.
Prosecutors will try to get that bail raised to $500,000 during a hearing scheduled for Friday.
Gazlay also has to post $50,000 bail in the crowbar incident by another court hearing Monday.
Laurent said Gazlay was visiting Hart at the jail in an attempt to influence his testimony.
"He's been visiting Mr. Hart not as a friend, but as a bailbondsman or as an attorney," Laurent said. "And this is Mr. Admirable."
Police say the 311 Boyz are a gang of affluent teens who waged several violent attacks in the area around Centennial High School during the summer.
But Buchanan and other defense attorneys have argued that the state has overcharged the teens. During this morning's hearing, Buchanan accused Laurent of releasing the tapes to the media in an effort to "prejudice the public."
"The whole case, as far as we're concerned, has been manipulated," he said. "(Laurent) gave it to the (media) on a silver platter."
Laurent said he did not release the tape to the media. He said the tape was attached as an exhibit to a bail motion, which made it a public document.
Prosecutors put the tapes in a position where they could be used, Hausch said.
"It was natural for the TV stations to run with it," she said. "They've exploited those tapes. At some point you are re-victimizing the victims. They can't turn on the news for fear of seeing themselves be beaten up."
Gazlay emerged at the forefront of the attack on Hansen after grand jury transcripts were released detailing testimony from several eyewitnesses who pointed to Gazlay as one of the instigators of the melee.
Prosecutors say Gazlay sat on the tailgate of the truck in which Hansen was riding, trying to prevent him from leaving. Buchanan said that was his client's only involvement in the incident.
"The only thing he did was sit on the tailgate of the truck involved in this incident," he said. "He was hugging a girl in the cul de sac when the rock was thrown. He had nothing to do with throwing the rock."
In an ammended bail motion filed last week, Laurent said that Christopher Farley, Scott Morse, and twins Anthony and Brandon Gallion jumped a fence that separated the gated community from the street and "set up a gauntlet" through which the car in which Hansen was riding had to pass.
Laurent did not say which teen the prosecutors believe threw the rock that injured Hansen.
"After launching their deadly missiles the rock-throwers jumped back over the wall and were bragging about hitting the truck," he wrote.
Len Paul, superintendent of the Clark County School District's northwest region, said three alleged members of the 311 Boyz are no longer taking classes on campus and have been moved to the independent study program.
The Gallion twins are juniors at Shadow Ridge High School and Aguilar is a senior at Centennial High School. Hart is also a senior at Centennial but has not yet made bail.
The decision to remove the young men from the regular classrooms came late last week after a meeting with Paul, Superintendent Carlos Garcia and the district's attorney, Bill Hoffman.
The decision made sense given the high-profile nature of the charges surrounding the 311 Boyz, particularly the allegations of racism and connections to white supremacy, Paul said.
"The main idea was to keep those kids from having any retaliatory action taken against them," Paul said this morning. "They were never a danger to anyone else on campus, and were keeping a very low profile as they had obviously been instructed to do."
Instead of going to school, the young men will study at home using the district's distance learning program, Paul said.
The students and their parents have all been cooperative with the switch to independent study, Paul said.
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