Police question Mazzeo’s friend investigation story

Jeff German and Sam Skolnik

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006 | 7:06 a.m.

Metro Police interviewed a central figure last week in the alleged assault case involving Governor-elect Jim Gibbons.

Detectives questioned Pennie Puhek, friend of alleged victim Chrissy Mazzeo, for more than an hour at a police substation, Puhek's attorney, John Bailey, confirmed Wednesday.

"They were asking every detail about what happened on Oct. 13 and the immediate aftermath," said Bailey, who attended the interview. "They were very thorough, very complete, very professional."

The investigation into Mazzeo's assault accusations - strongly denied by Gibbons - is among the fallout from several scandals the governor-elect must deal with as he prepares to take the reins of state government in January.

Another well-known Republican officeholder also is under the cloud of a potential investigation. Rep. Jon Porter, who narrowly won his race Tuesday, enters his third term as the FBI looks into allegations that he made illegal fundraising phone calls from his government offices. After a former Porter staffer made the allegations, first reported in the Sun, Nevada Democratic Party Chairman Tom Collins asked federal authorities to investigate.

Mazzeo, a 32-year-old single mother and cocktail waitress, has said that Puhek called her for several days after the Oct. 13 encounter to urge her to recant her story. Mazzeo said Puhek suggested that the Gibbons camp was willing to offer money if she would sign a "silence agreement."

Puhek, the wife of a prominent Republican dentist, denied those claims in a statement requested by the Gibbons campaign.

Bailey said his client is cooperating fully with police.

"She's not a target of the investigation, and she has no desire to be in the limelight," Bailey said.

Among those interviewed by detectives last week was Sig Rogich, the high-powered Gibbons campaign adviser who was drinking with Gibbons, Mazzeo, Puhek and two other women at McCormick & Schmick's before the late-night incident, which occurred in or just outside a parking structure.

Sources close to the investigation said that Rogich sat with detectives at the police department and gave a voluntary statement.

In a separate situation, Gibbons faces continued scrutiny from a Wall Street Journal report days before the election that disclosed he received nearly $100,000 in campaign contributions and a "lavish" (estimated at $14,000) cruise from a Reno software company owner to whom the congressman helped steer federal defense contracts worth millions.

On a third matter, questions linger about Gibbons' hiring of an illegal immigrant as his family's housekeeper and nanny in the late 1980s. The statute of limitations relating to his conduct likely has run out, but the incident did raise questions about his judgment.

Police, meanwhile, are "pressing ahead" with the investigation into Mazzeo's claims, Sheriff Bill Young said Wednesday.

Young said he did not know when the investigation, which so far is focusing on a charge of misdemeanor battery, would be completed. "We're going to gather up every fact we can," Young said. "The final decision on whether or not to prosecute rests with the district attorney's office."

District Attorney David Roger declined comment Wednesday, saying he would wait for police to conclude the investigation.

The sheriff said detectives still are attempting to authenticate the recently discovered videotapes of the goings-on at the parking garage the night of the encounter.