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March 29, 2024

Doctor expected to testify at hearing of accused Bellagio casino robber

Judge delays preliminary hearing of alleged ‘biker bandit’ for another week

Bellagio Bandit - March 9, 2011

Anthony M. Carleo is in court for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, March 9, 2011. Launch slideshow »

A Las Vegas judge is expected to hear testimony next Friday from a confidential police informant as the preliminary hearing continues for the man accused of robbing a Bellagio craps table in December and escaping on a motorcycle with $1.4 million in casino chips.

Anthony Carleo's preliminary hearing was expected to continue this morning in Las Vegas Justice Court.

However, Carleo's attorney, William Terry, asked Justice of the Peace Conrad Hafen for a delay until next week and Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens had no objection. The judge continued the hearing to 8:30 a.m. April 8.

Although most of the testimony from Carleo's preliminary hearing was on Feb. 23 before Judge Ann Zimmerman, it was delayed so Terry could meet with a confidential police informant and decide whether to bring him in to testify.

Since that time, Terry has identified the informant as Las Vegas physician Kian Kaveh.

An undercover Las Vegas police detective, Michael Gennaro, testified on Feb. 23 that the informant set up several meetings between Gennaro and Carleo and that those meetings led to Carleo selling the officer several $25,000 casino chips before police moved in to arrest Carleo.

Terry has said he wanted to place the informant on the stand to see if there were discrepancies between his testimony and the testimony of the police officer.

Carleo, who was brought to court this morning, is being held at the Clark County Detention Center on $1 million bail.

Carleo, also known as Anthony Assad, is the 29-year-old son of Las Vegas Municipal Court Judge George Assad.

Carleo initially was charged with robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary with a deadly weapon. The district attorney's office has added charges of robbery with the use of a deadly weapon, victim 60 years of age or older; and three more counts of robbery with the use of a deadly weapon.

According to testimony at the Feb. 23 hearing, a Bellagio valet supervisor and a Bellagio security guard said they saw a man wearing a motorcycle helmet walk into the casino about 3:50 a.m. Dec. 14, 2010.

A 72-year-old craps table supervisor testified that a man wearing a motorcycle helmet and waiving a gun came to one of the craps tables, pushed the dealer out of the way and started digging chips out of the rack and putting them into a pouch.

The helmeted man went after the cranberry-colored $25,000 chips first, then took chips worth varying amounts ranging from $100 to $5,000, the supervisor said.

The security officer and the valet said the helmeted man came running out of the building carrying a gun, ran to his motorcycle and drove out to Flamingo Road and headed west.

The undercover police officer testified that he had five meetings with Carleo arranged by an informant from Jan. 28 through Feb. 2 at the Venetian and the Bellagio.

All together, the officer said he purchased a total of seven $25,000 chips from Carleo in their transactions. After officers arrested Carleo, they also got another seven $25,000 chips, the undercover officer said. Those chips were valued at $350,000, he said.

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