Mazzeo to take weekend to steel her resolve

Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006 | 7:45 a.m.

Chrissy Mazzeo is taking the weekend to think about the ramifications of pressing charges in a new high-profile police investigation into her alleged Oct. 13 assault by Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons.

"I want to make sure she is committed 100 percent for the long haul," her attorney, Richard Wright, said Friday. "My belief is she most probably is."

Wright said he wanted Mazzeo, a 32-year-old single mother and cocktail waitress, to consider that the Gibbons camp will continue trying to damage her reputation if she cooperates with police.

"I told her to take some time to think about this knowing they're trying to slime her up legally or illegally, by any means possible," Wright said.

Wright said he doesn't believe there is anything of note in Mazzeo's life, as Gibbons' lawyer Don Campbell implied Wednesday, without providing specifics.

Campbell called Mazzeo an "exceedingly troubled young lady" and urged reporters to look into her background.

He was responding to a news conference Wright and Mazzeo held hours earlier to defend her reputation and stand by accusations that Gibbons assaulted her at a parking structure following an evening of drinking at McCormick & Schmick's restaurant.

Mazzeo told reporters she preferred to have her privacy back but would be willing to cooperate with any authorities interested in getting to the truth about what happened between her and Gibbons, or about the pressure placed on her in the days that followed to recant her story.

She has alleged Gibbons grabbed her arms, pushed her up against a wall in a parking structure and tried to coerce her into having sex.

Gibbons strongly denied the allegations and said he was merely grabbing her to break a fall after she stumbled while he was helping her find her truck.

Mazzeo declined to press charges the day after the incident, saying she didn't want to mess with someone as powerful as Gibbons. She made her decision after police told her that surveillance cameras in the parking structure had not recorded the incident.

At her news conference, she said she was threatened and offered money to drop the charges.

The Gibbons camp has denied those accusations and hired private investigator David Groover to look into Mazzeo's claims. A second high-profile private detective, Tom Dillard, is now assisting Groover.

The case has attracted the attention of the National Organization for Women, which calls it an example of how women are treated unfairly in the justice system.

"It has been our experience that whenever an assault claim is made by a woman against a football player, a politician, a celebrity of any kind, that the woman is automatically disbelieved and is seen as a 'gold-digger,' " said Kim Gandy, NOW's national president in Washington. "What does that tell the football player, politician or celebrity? That they can do anything they want."

At a news conference Thursday, Sheriff Bill Young urged Mazzeo to step forward and cooperate for a second time in a new investigation. Wright said he expected to consult with Mazzeo on Monday about her decision.