Chrissy Mazzeo
'Our system sucks,' cocktail waitress says of decision
Jim Gibbons
Nevada's future governor not part of remaining inquiry, spokesman says
Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons will not be prosecuted on allegations that he assaulted cocktail waitress Chrissy Mazzeo three weeks before Election Day, but authorities are continuing to investigate whether anyone attempted to influence Mazzeo's statements to authorities.
District Attorney David Roger said Wednesday that before deciding not to pursue the case, he met with Mazzeo and conducted an extensive review of Mazzeo's allegations that Gibbons grabbed her in a parking garage and threatened to sexually assault her after a night of drinking on Oct. 13 at the McCormick & Schmick's restaurant, near Flamingo Road at Paradise Road.
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"We review cases to determine if there is sufficient evidence to go forward at trial, and we felt we did not have a provable case," Roger said. "We looked at the totality of the evidence in making our decision."
Mazzeo was disappointed with Roger's decision. "The only thing I can say is our system sucks," the 32-year-old Las Vegas Valley resident said. "I actually even said that if he (Gibbons) apologized to me, I would drop everything. And he wasn't man enough to actually apologize. But he knows the truth, and I know the truth."
Mazzeo's lawyer, Richard Wright, said Wednesday that Mazzeo has no intentions of filing a lawsuit against Gibbons.
"Never did," Wright said.
Gibbons' spokesman, Brent Boynton, said: "The results are no surprise to us. It's been over for us for a long time. ... Anyone who knows Jim Gibbons knows he did nothing improper, and we have known all along this would be the outcome."
Gibbons has not been implicated in the remaining investigation, Roger said.
"There are allegations that certain individuals tried to influence Miss Mazzeo's testimony to police," Roger said, declining to identify the individuals. "We are going to investigate those allegations."
Roger said his office is "going to go wherever the investigation takes us," but added that investigators "do not believe Mr. Gibbons was directly or indirectly involved in this activity."
An investigator for the district attorney's office has filed an administrative subpoena seeking the cell phone records of Gibbons' campaign adviser Sig Rogich; Dave Groover, an investigator for Gibbons' lawyer, Don Campbell; and Pennie Puhek, who was with Mazzeo in Gibbons and Rogich's booth at the restaurant on the night in question.
At news conferences in the weeks after the allegations, Mazzeo said Puhek had relayed threats and bribe offers from the Gibbons camp. Puhek issued a statement to the media that denied the allegations and that said Mazzeo needed "professional help."
Roger, in announcing his decision Wednesday, released 31 pages of police reports summarizing the police inquiry, and the documents indicated Puhek denied threatening Mazzeo in any way, although she acknowledged talking to Mazzeo about the incident over the phone.
Puhek did not return the Review-Journal's call seeking comment Wednesday, and her lawyer, John Bailey, declined to comment.
The allegations about Puhek were one of the areas where police ran into problems with Mazzeo's story.
During Wright's first news conference on the incident, he said threats were made to Mazzeo by Puhek the morning after the incident. Wright also said Mazzeo wrote down the instructions she received from Puhek on a police officer's business card so she would know what to say when she was contacted by detectives.
But when detectives met with Mazzeo and examined the business card, they noticed the card was from Detective Mike Hnatuick, who had not met with Mazzeo until hours after the time the conversation with Puhek had occurred.
"Mazzeo could not have written the instructions she received from Puhek on my business card the morning or afternoon of Oct. 14, 2006," Hnatuick wrote. "I didn't meet with Mazzeo until that evening."
Wright said Wednesday that police have recounted the chronology of the events incorrectly.
Wright had said publicly that Puhek left Mazzeo several messages on Mazzeo's cell phone voice mail. Mazzeo said she deleted all of the voice messages, and during interviews with detectives, she never mentioned the messages.
The allegations regarding Puhek were not the only ones that were problematic for Las Vegas police, who recommended no charges be brought in the case after interviewing more than 44 witnesses, scouring businesses in the area for video surveillance, examining credit card receipts of those involved and retrieving cell phone records.
Mazzeo said the assault occurred in the Hughes Center parking garage, but video surveillance from the garage showed that was not the case, police said. When asked to pinpoint the location of the assault in the garage while being videotaped by investigators, she changed her account repeatedly.
"Inconsistencies in Mazzeo's version of the events during the video/audio walk-thru and her interview are of a concern to detectives," police wrote. "Mazzeo placed herself in front of four cameras within the parking structure." But on the garage's surveillance tapes from the night in question, Oct. 13, "neither she nor Gibbons appear on the video," police wrote.
Detectives did an investigation to verify the authenticity of the videotapes from the parking garage after a 13-day delay in obtaining them. The tapes were stamped with the date of Oct. 13, and raindrops could be seen on some of the camera angles, which was consistent with the weather at the time, leading police to conclude they were authentic and had not been manipulated.
After police concluded their investigation, Mike Karstedt, an investigator for the district attorney's office, met with Mazzeo and asked her to walk him through her version of what happened in the parking garage. "On almost every step of the way, Mazzeo changed her story and appeared totally confused (about) where she was or how it happened," Karstedt wrote.
Wright said he believes Mazzeo was telling the truth about what happened, as best she could. "There is no question that from the trauma and the anxiety and shock as evidenced by her demeanor and hysterical behavior and 911 calls, she's unclear as to where it happened," Wright said.
Police said other portions of Mazzeo's story didn't make sense, such as her account of fleeing the parking structure. She would have run past the crowded restaurant parking lot and seven other businesses that were open without stopping at any of them to seek help, police said.
Mazzeo said she wound up crossing Paradise Road, going into the lobby of the La Quinta Inn and placing a cell phone call from the hotel. Police obtained video surveillance from the La Quinta, and it did not show Mazzeo.
Police also said that Mazzeo had two scratches on her body, one on her shoulder and one on her back. But Mazzeo offered no explanation of how she suffered the scratches.
"Mazzeo stated at no time during the alleged altercation was her shirt removed, exposing her shoulder or back," detectives wrote. "The shirt she was wearing that evening was not torn or damaged in any way. Mazzeo said she didn't know how she got the scratches, and the scratches are inconsistent with the way she describes Gibbons grabbing her."
As for Gibbons' version of the incident, police said that a 32-minute gap existed in his initial account of the night on which Mazzeo alleged he assaulted her.
In his second interview with police, Gibbons said he thought he and Mazzeo separated at approximately 10:15 p.m. But when detectives checked computerized hotel records, it showed he entered his room at 10:47 p.m.
"When questioned about the discrepancy in time, Gibbons said he remembered attempting to open the rear gate to the hotel," police wrote. "However, the gate wouldn't open. He then walked around to the front of the hotel and realized he didn't have his key. He thought he may have dropped the key card. Gibbons said he retraced his steps back the rear gate of the hotel and found his key card lying on the ground. Gibbons said he didn't know how long it took him to locate his room key."
During Gibbons first statement to police, he had not mentioned the search for the key card.
Campbell said Wednesday evening that when he was hired by the Gibbons camp, Gibbons had relayed the information to him and also to a private investigator.
Wright said that based on the police reports he has reviewed, Gibbons seemed to indicate in his second interview that he had walked Mazzeo to a parking structure at the Marriott hotel and not to the Hughes Center parking garage next to McCormick & Schmick's restaurant, where Mazzeo alleged the assault occurred.
Wright said he always had been under the impression that during Gibbons' first statement, Gibbons said he had walked Mazzeo to the Hughes Center garage.
"I see inconsistencies," Wright said. "Gone for 45 minutes? Now, he has got her at a different parking garage?"
Campbell said there are no inconsistencies: The two parking garages are adjacent to one another.
Gibbons has said he walked Mazzeo to her car and grabbed her arm when she tripped and fell.
One witness, Christopher Creasey, told police he was involved in a charity auction at McCormick & Schmick's on the night of Oct. 13. As he was driving away from the establishment that evening, he saw Gibbons with a woman he believed to be Mazzeo walking a few feet from the politician.
"Gibbons was walking approximately 15 feet in front of her," police said of Creasey's account. "Mazzeo was behind Gibbons, walking in the same direction, and stumbling in such a manner Creasey believed she was intoxicated or suffered from a physical disability. Creasey said his initial impression of this was Gibbons was trying to get away from Mazzeo. Creasey said he never witnessed physical contact between the two."
A valet, George Garcia, told police he saw Gibbons and a woman walking through the McCormick & Schmick's parking lot.
"According to Garcia, Gibbons had his arm around the female, and she was leaning into him," police wrote. "Startled by this, Garcia stopped and asked Gibbons if he needed a car retrieved. Gibbons, according to Garcia, shooed him away and as Garcia continued on, he heard both Gibbons and the female laughing."
Julie Vick, a waitress who originally told police that the atmosphere at Gibbons' restaurant booth was "flirty" and that dirty jokes were being told, later "clarified the comment by saying everyone at the table seemed to be having a good time, drinking and laughing," police wrote. "Vick said she witnessed no behavior at the table she would consider inappropriate or of a sexual nature."
A friend of Mazzeo, Stefanie Damelio, told police Mazzeo "could overexaggerate things but she did not think Mazzeo overexaggerated the incident with Gibbons."
