Defense in sting case claims agents used racial slur

By Jeff German

Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Some analysts years ago said the verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder case may have turned on the audiotape of Detective Mark Fuhrman’s use of the N-word.

In downtown Las Vegas this week, defense lawyers tried to show that federal agents had their own Fuhrman moments, using the racial slur to describe the street criminals they were chasing in the 15-month undercover sting, Sin City Ink.

But as the attorneys played a government tape of the undercover agents in action, nobody in the courtroom, including the judge, could make out exactly what was said.

Attorneys Shari Kaufman, Lisa Rasmussen and Natalie Smoot are hoping that if U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson hears the tape the way they hear it, Dawson will order the government to turn over more evidence of potential misconduct on the part of agents. Their goal is to get Dawson to dismiss the case against their clients, some of whom were ensnared in the investigation while working at a tattoo shop that provided cover for the agents.

Rasmussen told Dawson she heard the racial remarks while listening to the tape with headphones on, and she urged the judge to do the same before he issues any rulings in the case. Dawson said he would do that.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Bliss argued that the N-word is not heard on the tape.

But Rasmussen alleged it was spoken on two occasions while the agents were by themselves in a back room of the tattoo parlor. One time on the tape, she said, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is overheard saying, “That’s a big n...” Another time, she said, an agent remarks, “the big black n...”

The racial bias claims are part of the latest defense effort to undermine the undercover operation that was run out of the Hustler Tattoo shop on Highland Drive. Agents had gone to the unusual step of having an informant obtain a city business license for Hustler Tattoo under his name. The agents, however, ran the business while dirty dealing with the defendants under color of law.

Lawyers previously alleged the government’s videotapes also show the sting’s lead undercover agent, Peter McCarthy, using illegal drugs while alone in the back room. Those tapes were played in court this week. The government says the drugs were fake.

In court papers, Bliss called the defense allegations a smoke screen aimed at shifting the focus from the criminal wrongdoing of their clients.

Still, Dawson is taking the misconduct allegations seriously. He has two more hearings set for this month, and before one of those hearings, on Wednesday, he plans to take a tour of the now closed tattoo shop.

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Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Bill Jansen has signed a warrant for the arrest of “Girls Gone Wild” mogul Joe Francis stemming from his $2 million gambling debt at Wynn Las Vegas.

As of late Friday, Francis had not been taken into custody, Chief Deputy District Attorney Bernie Zadrowski said.

Zadrowski’s bad check unit is prosecuting Francis on charges of theft and writing a fraudulent check.

Francis contends he owes the Wynn considerably less than $2 million and that his bank account held plenty of cash when he wrote a $2.5 million check to the Strip resort in February 2007 to obtain gambling markers.

He provided the Sun with records that he says show the account wasn’t closed by the bank until May 2007 and Wynn didn’t attempt to deposit the check until this April, about 14 months after he had written the check.

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Former Assistant District Attorney Robert Teuton will be sworn in Monday as the county’s newest district judge.

Teuton, who oversaw the district attorney’s family support division, will take his oath and receive his judicial robe on the steps of City Hall at 3:30 p.m.

Gov. Jim Gibbons appointed Teuton to fill the vacancy left by Gerald Hardcastle, who retired in July. Hardcastle’s term expires in December 2010.