Friday, Jan. 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Metro Police detectives took steps this week to comply with a more than 15-month-old court order, but it may not have been enough to prevent District Judge Michelle Leavitt from holding them in contempt of court at the end of the month.
In 2007, authorities arrested more than 30 people in an Arizona-based investigation that focused on a multimillion-dollar gambling operation linked to an offshore betting Web site in Costa Rica. Most of those arrested were from the Phoenix-area, but a few Las Vegas Valley residents were also ensnared in the probe.
Metro confiscated money and property during the April 2007 raids here — and then allowed Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies to spirit away the loot to Phoenix without first obtaining the authorization of any court. Leavitt ruled the raids and the removal of the property to another state illegal and the following September ordered the cash and goods to be returned.
Through a series of legal maneuvers that ultimately involved the Nevada Supreme Court, attorneys for the police have managed to prevent Leavitt from holding a hearing on whether to punish Metro.
The cops also had not returned any of the property — until this week.
On Wednesday, the Arizona sheriff’s deputies, with some prodding from Metro and its attorneys, gave back $252,000 in cash and a valuable coin collection seized from 45-year-old Las Vegan Brandt England, his attorney, David Chesnoff, said.
Chesnoff also said criminal charges have been dismissed against Brandt in Arizona.
But two other local targets of the Arizona investigation, 63-year-old Michael V. Buono Sr. and his son, Michael A. Buono, have yet to see a horde of jewelry and several thousand dollars that police took from them. Criminal charges have been dismissed against them, as well, in Arizona. The Buonos’ attorney, John Momot, however, isn’t willing to let Metro off the hook. He wants Leavitt to go through with the contempt hearing slated for Jan. 30.
“I’m not making any deals,” he says. “I want financial compensation for my clients for what they had to go through the past year and a half.”
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With four newly elected district judges and two new justices of the peace taking the bench, there’s been more confusion than normal this week at the busy Regional Justice Center downtown.
Things got off to a rocky start in the courtrooms of rookie Justices of the Peace Eric Goodman (yes, he’s a son of the Las Vegas mayor) and Diana Sullivan on Monday, when the courthouse computer system failed to pull up their courtroom calendars.
Not knowing where to go, misdemeanor defendants were showing up late or not at all for their court dates until the glitch was ultimately fixed.
In the confusion, the new justices of the peace issued about two dozen bench warrants for some of those defendants. The warrants, however, were later rescinded. Most of the people didn’t even know the warrants had been issued.
In District Court, the influx of new judges forced courthouse officials to reshuffle about a dozen judicial dockets, which led to some griping among lawyers throughout the week.
Clark County Public Defender Phil Kohn, whose deputies appear regularly before the judges, said everything was a little disorganized — but it wasn’t as bad as he had expected.
•••
Courthouse officials do have something to smile about this week.
Las Vegas Justice Court’s traffic ticket amnesty program is bringing in more money for the county.
According to figures provided by officials, since the amnesty program was launched Dec. 9, the court has collected roughly $3 million, $548,950 more last month than the previous December when there was no amnesty. That’s a 22.4 percent increase in revenue.
“We’re excited about the initial outcome,” courthouse spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said. “We’re hoping to do even better before the end of amnesty on Feb. 6.”
Justice Court still has a long way to go before it collects all of the money it is owed.
It still has about $139.2 million in outstanding traffic fines, Sommermeyer said.
Once the amnesty program is over, people with overdue traffic tickets in the county face arrest.
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