She Says

Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006 | 7:56 a.m.

Apart from the accusations at the core of Chrissy Mazzeo's account of her encounter with gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons, her version of events could be read as a case study in how Las Vegas really works.

At a news conference Wednesday, Mazzeo and lawyer Richard Wright recounted events that reveal how elements of the Las Vegas establishment can use power and networking to impose their will - in this case, backing Gibbons over Mazzeo.

"She didn't know what she was up against and the power that exists when someone is up against a (person) like this," Wright said. "She doesn't like this situation, and she is scared to death."

Not only was Mazzeo up against Gibbons, a five-term congressman and war veteran, but also his top campaign adviser, Sig Rogich, a consummate political insider with high-level contacts from the Governor's Mansion to Washington, D.C., from Las Vegas Strip boardrooms to the sheriff's department.

Rogich has friends in all of those places - and many of those friends are also friends with other friends.

For instance, Rogich is a political adviser to Sheriff Bill Young. Young has endorsed Gibbons - and Young called Gibbons from Boston the morning after the incident to arrange for the candidate to be interviewed by detectives.

Rogich also tapped contacts at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he attempted to persuade the newspaper's publisher to kill its sketchy first story about the encounter the next day. The paper didn't kill the story, but the story ran under the headline, "Gibbons cleared by police," and quoted Young calling the incident "just a misunderstanding."

Wright suggested that the Gibbons camp may have been alerted about Mazzeo's accusations the night it happened. Mazzeo said she had called one of her drinking companions who had been at a bar with Gibbons and Rogich. If Rogich was in turn tipped off on Friday night, as police were just starting their investigation, the former adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush certainly would not simply have gone home to bed.

What follows is the Mazzeo narrative of the last 10 days and the peek it provides into Las Vegas power.

Within minutes of her first of three 911 calls at 10:23 p.m., Mazzeo telephoned her friend, Pennie Puhek, who had been drinking with her, Gibbons, Rogich and two other women at McCormick & Schmick's restaurant bar before the alleged assault.

Puhek, the wife of a local dentist, has said she left the bar about 10:15 p.m. and was giving a ride home to another one of the women - Michelle Diegel, who works in a law office in the same suite as Rogich.

Whether Puhek or Diegel immediately phoned Rogich to tell him that his candidate was in trouble isn't known because none of the three is answering questions.

In her 911 calls, Mazzeo is heard telling police to check the video surveillance cameras in the parking garage where the incident occurred. She said they would prove what happened.

Wright said that as the investigation continued into the wee hours of Saturday, police told Mazzeo that the videotapes would be produced.

At 3:30 a.m., "police told her that getting the videotapes would be another hour," Wright said. "Ultimately, they took her home and said they would be receiving them in the morning."

But later Saturday, police told her the tapes didn't exist. The case, they said, "will be his word against your word."

What happened to the tapes? Why did it take more than four hours to determine whether they existed?

The parking garage and McCormick & Schmick's are in the Hughes Center, at the intersection of Paradise and Flamingo roads. Rogich's office is also in Hughes Center. The security company responsible for the parking garage won't answer questions. Young says the cameras were operable but weren't working that night.

Also that Saturday, at 7 a.m., Wright said Mazzeo received the first of several calls from Puhek attempting to persuade her to drop the case.

"You've got to take this back," Wright quoted Puhek telling Mazzeo. "You don't understand what is going to happen. You don't understand the power of the people you are dealing with."

In one of the calls, Mazzeo said Puhek told her: "They'll kill you, your baby and your family. Trust me, you're more naive than I am."

Wright said Puhek gave Mazzeo the name and telephone number of a police officer she could call to say she wanted to drop the charges. Where Puhek would have gotten that name and number is not known.

Eventually, Wright said, Mazzeo called the officer and later in the afternoon, knowing no video evidence existed, she signed a statement saying that she didn't want to press charges " 'cause of who he is, and I just don't want to go up against someone like that."

Mazzeo thought the ordeal was over. But Puhek called again Sunday, Wright said. Puhek told Mazzeo that she needed to meet with the "Gibbons people" and sign a "silence agreement" that would "make this go away."

"Pennie says, 'Chrissy, there's money in this. You will get money for signing this,' " Wright said.

Mazzeo, however, told Puhek she didn't want any money and didn't want to sign anything else.

On Tuesday, Mazzeo received a call from a man she said identified himself as an attorney with the Gibbons group. The man, who Wright said turned out to be David Groover, a private detective hired by Rogich, told her he needed to meet with her immediately if she wanted to put the incident behind her.

Groover, Wright said, was attempting to clear up discrepancies between the statements Mazzeo and Gibbons had given police. Wright suggested that Groover had obtained copies of the police reports, before both Mazzeo and the media.

(At a separate news conference Wednesday, Groover denied that he had advance copies of the reports. Don Campbell, Gibbons' attorney, said he thought it was perfectly proper for Young to give preferential treatment to Gibbons, given that he's a candidate for governor, a congressman and a decorated veteran with no police record.)

As pressure on Mazzeo continued, she began confiding in a former boyfriend, Harold L. Collins, a Los Angeles-area attorney. Collins advised Mazzeo not to talk to Groover.

Collins, Wright added, became concerned about the pressure on Mazzeo. "He ultimately concluded that offenses were taking place in getting someone to retract a statement, offering someone money," Wright told reporters.

Collins then contacted the FBI. He also spoke to Wright, saying that he was concerned about how police handled the case and didn't know why the sheriff was making statements on behalf of Gibbons.

Wright agreed to represent Mazzeo. She asked for advice on how to respond to the pressure. "She still wanted everything to go away," Wright said. "She wanted her privacy back."

Campbell told reporters Wednesday that Gibbons considered Mazzeo's latest allegations "outrageous," which is the same word Gibbons used in a short statement responding to Mazzeo's news conference. Campbell described Mazzeo as an "exceedingly troubled young lady" with a questionable background. He would not elaborate.

Puhek issued a statement denying any involvement with the Gibbons campaign. She accused Mazzeo of making up her story.

Collins said later Wednesday that he wasn't surprised at the latest attacks on Mazzeo. "She was warned that they would try to destroy her, and now the warnings are becoming reality," he said.

In an interview after her news conference, Mazzeo stood by her allegations. She said the encounter with Gibbons demonstrated to her that "something is mentally wrong with him."

archive