Letter to editor prompts bid to kill indictments

Erica D. Johnson

Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.

An attorney for one of the alleged 311 Boyz has filed a motion challenging the grand jury that indicted his client, saying a letter he says was written by one of the jurors to a local newspaper shows the juror was not impartial when he voted to charge the teen.

In the motion filed Monday, James "Bucky" Buchanan, attorney for Steven Gazlay, charges one grand juror with being prejudiced toward his client based on a letter to the editor published in the Review-Journal.

Buchanan has asked that the indictments filed against his client be dismissed and a new grand jury empanelled.

Buchanan claims Ralph Smith sat on the grand jury that later indicted Gazlay and eight other teens on charges stemming from an attack on 17-year-old Stephen Tanner Hansen.

Grand juries in Clark County convene in secret and members of the grand jury are supposed to remain anonymous by law.

Buchanan says a Ralph Smith expressed bias toward the accused teens in a letter that was published in the newspaper on Sept. 8, nearly three weeks after the teens were indicted.

The letter calls the teens "spoiled, self-absorbed rich kids who thought they were above the law."

The letter further states that "it would be appalling to see these white gang members get off easy."

Courthouse sources said the letter writer and the grand juror were the same person.

The district attorney's office has not confirmed whether the Ralph Smith who wrote the letter is the same man who sat on the grand jury that later indicted Gazlay. The phone book has seven listings for Ralph Smith, none of whom, when called Monday, said they wrote to the newspaper.

"We are investigating the matter and conducting legal research to determine our course of action," District Attorney David Roger said this morning.

Ralph Smith's name, however, is listed in the grand jury transcripts as one of the jurors who was present during the proceeding.

Buchanan said he verified Monday through "anonymous sources" that it is the same Ralph Smith.

"The indictments should absolutely be dismissed," he said. "He is no longer an impartial juror."

It was still unclear whether Smith sat on the grand jury that later indicted Gazlay on additional felony charges stemming from two separate attacks in northwest Las Vegas. Those grand jury transcripts have not been released.

In one case Gazlay faces a single count of battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm in connection with the burning of another teen with a hot butter knife.

He 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 filed the motion to dismiss the indictments in all three cases.

If Smith did sit on the last two grand juries, Buchanan said, that in itself is enough to make the indictment improper.

He said Smith should have never been allowed to sit on the grand jury after he wrote the letter to the newspaper.

"Without the impartiality he can't return an impartial verdict," Buchanan said. "He taints the whole jury. The indictments should absolutely be dismissed."

If the court finds that the jury was prejudiced due to Smith's conduct, all three indictments could be dismissed and a new grand jury would be empanelled, Buchanan said.

Buchanan said he doubts a new grand jury would return another indictment against his client.

"Not after looking at the weaknesses of the case that we've brought up," he said.

Gazlay and eight other teens face 13 felony counts, including attempted murder, in the attack on Hansen in a gated Summerlin community.

Authorities say Hansen was seriously injured when one of the teens threw a rock through the windshield of the vehicle in which Hansen was riding. The rock crushed one side of Hansen's face. He has undergone several reconstructive surgeries.

The nine teens charged are out of custody on a $40,000 bond until their trial, but a judge last week impost evening curfews for most of the teens. The letter to the Review-Journal said the teens likely would still be in jail if they were black or Hispanic.

"If the kids who beat up Tanner Hansen were not white and rich they would probably be sitting in the Clark County lock-up and not out on bail free to live their lives," the letter said.

The letter also expresses sympathy for Hansen.