DA Roger promises review of case after Mazzeo meeting

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2006 | 7:08 a.m.

The woman who has accused Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons of assaulting her met with Clark County District Attorney David Roger this week and said she's standing by her account, despite police doubts about her claims.

"She told me she wants the truth to come out," Roger said following a 15-minute meeting in his office Monday with 32-year-old Chrissy Mazzeo and her lawyers, Richard Wright and Karen Winckler.

Metro Police turned the case over to Roger on Friday with a recommendation against filing charges. That was an unusual step because in such cases, police generally either recommend prosecution or make no recommendation at all.

Roger told the Sun that he promised Mazzeo and her lawyers that he would do a "thorough review" of the police investigation.

That review is expected to include looking at Mazzeo's claims that the high-powered Gibbons camp tried to silence her in the waning days of the governor's race.

Harold L. Collins, a Los Angeles-area attorney who put Mazzeo in touch with her Las Vegas lawyers in October, said Wednesday he was concerned that police did not seriously investigate the alleged efforts to coerce Mazzeo into dropping the charges.

"I feel there was a lack of interest in looking at the possibility of witness intimidation," Collins said.

He added that police mishandled the case from the beginning and lost any "appearance of fairness and objectivity" when they submitted it to Roger with a recommendation against prosecution.

"I feel this was almost contrived," Collins said. "It was intended to tie the district attorney's hands or undermine any independent conclusion the district attorney might come to with regard to prosecuting or not prosecuting this case."

Roger, however, said he did not feel pressured by police.

He said he arranged Monday's meeting to give Mazzeo a better understanding of how he will evaluate whether Gibbons should be charged.

"I wanted to let her know what the process will be like," Roger said, adding that he assigned a female investigator as Mazzeo's contact during the review "to make her more comfortable about dealing with this office."

As Wright, Winckler and Mazzeo left the Regional Justice Center on Monday, they declined to comment. Mazzeo, a single mother and cocktail waitress, was wearing a honey blond wig, with straight hair flowing down her back, apparently trying to disguise her appearance at the justice center. At a news conference last month, Mazzeo had long, dark brown hair.

Mazzeo first raised her allegations Oct. 13 following drinks with Gibbons, his top political strategist, Sig Rogich, and three other women at a Hughes Center restaurant.

Mazzeo told police she was accosted by Gibbons inside a garage across the street from the restaurant. She said Gibbons grabbed her arms, threw her against a wall and tried to coerce her into having sex.

Gibbons, a five-term Republican congressman who will be sworn in as governor in January, said no assault occurred. He contended that he was helping Mazzeo find her truck outside the parking garage when she slipped, and he grabbed her arms to break her fall.

Mazzeo decided not to press charges, telling police the next day that she didn't want to take on someone as powerful as Gibbons.

But she said the Gibbons camp wanted more. In the days that followed, she said, she was offered money and threatened in an attempt to persuade her to remain silent about the incident. She refused.

As the Gibbons team and police continued to cast doubt publicly about her claim, she asked police to reopen the case because, she said, she wanted her reputation restored.