Phone records show numerous calls were placed between cell phones belonging to Chrissy Mazzeo and her friend Pennie Puhek, starting around the time the cocktail waitress first dialed 911 on Oct. 13, saying she had been assaulted by gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons, and continuing for at least five days.

Mazzeo has said that Puhek acted as a go-between for the Gibbons camp, relaying threats and offers of money to buy Mazzeo's silence.

According to Mazzeo's T-Mobile cell phone records, more than a dozen calls totaling at least 75 minutes were placed between Mazzeo and a number identified by Mazzeo's attorney as Puhek's cell phone between Oct. 13 and Oct. 18. Some calls lasted 18 minutes, while others were as short as two minutes. The content of the conversations is unknown.

The records also showed numerous one-minute calls between Mazzeo and Puhek's cell phones, but those might have been calls that didn't connect.

Records showed six calls between Mazzeo and Puhek's phones on the afternoon of Oct. 13, before the incident is alleged to have occurred, and more than a dozen placed from immediately after Mazzeo called 911 and in the days following.

Puhek could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

The Review-Journal called the number identified by Mazzeo's attorney, Richard Wright, as belonging to Puhek. The voice mail for the number included a greeting from a woman identifying herself as Pennie.

Puhek has denied working on behalf of Gibbons' campaign. She also denied urging Mazzeo to drop her complaint against the Republican congressman and keep silent on the incident.

"I categorically deny that I am or ever was affiliated with the Gibbons' campaign or that I suggested to Chrissy that she not press charges for any reason, including money," she said in a statement.

Mazzeo and Puhek had dinner at McCormick & Schmick's on Oct. 13 and were drinking at the bar when Puhek recognized Gibbons, who was sitting at a table drinking with several other people. Others at the table included political adviser Sig Rogich and Michelle Diegel, an acquaintance of Puhek's from high school who works in the same office building as Rogich.

Mazzeo and Puhek joined Gibbons and the group. Eventually Gibbons left the restaurant about 10 p.m. Mazzeo left shortly after. Gibbons said he was helping Mazzeo find her car when she tripped. He tried to break her fall and the two parted ways, according to Gibbons' statement to police.

Mazzeo said Gibbons grabbed her arms, forced her against a wall and threatened her while inside the parking garage. She ran away after three teens passed by, she told police.

Wright, Mazzeo's attorney, declined to comment on the significance of the telephone records. But he and Mazzeo have said that Puhek urged Mazzeo in the days after the incident to not press charges against Gibbons, predicting, "They'll kill your baby and your family."

Mazzeo and Wright have said that after Mazzeo decided not go forward with a complaint against Gibbons, Puhek continued to speak with Mazzeo and offered money from the Gibbons camp in exchange for a "silence agreement" barring her from talking about the Oct. 13 incident.

Gibbons' campaign manager, Robert Uithoven, said on Saturday that Gibbons' campaign never spoke to Puhek and never tried to buy Mazzeo's silence.

"I remember from her initial press conference where she said our campaign was making threats of violence and bribery. That is 100 percent false. No one from our campaign ever threatened anyone," Uithoven said. "We never made any attempts to contact anyone in this investigation."

David Groover, a private investigator working for Gibbons' attorney, Don Campbell, did contact Mazzeo in the days following the incident because he wanted to interview her and hear her side of the story, according to a statement he gave to Campbell.

Mazzeo has said security cameras inside the parking garage should have shown the incident. Those tapes, which were kept by the company that owns the parking garage, weren't given to police for nearly two weeks after the incident.

A review of hours of footage from the surveillance tapes from the night of Oct. 13 did not show either Gibbons or Mazzeo inside the garage.