Jim Gibbons Gubernatorial candidate says he was trying to stop woman from falling

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons was cleared by Las Vegas police on Saturday after a one-day investigation into a complaint that he assaulted a woman outside a restaurant on Friday night, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

"There is no criminal prosecution and no further investigation," Clark County Sheriff Bill Young said Saturday evening. "No crime occurred. It's just a misunderstanding."

Late Friday, the woman, whom police did not identify, filed a complaint that Gibbons had assaulted her by trying to grab her by the arm outside McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant in the Hughes Center complex near Paradise and Flamingo roads. Gibbons and the woman both had been drinking at the restaurant.

By Saturday evening, Young said, the woman had been re-interviewed by detectives and decided not to pursue criminal charges. Police would not release the woman's original statement or her subsequent statement.

Young, a Republican, has endorsed Gibbons, a five-term congressman from Reno. Police said the investigation was handled the same as any other case would have been and the case now is closed.

The woman was "very intoxicated" when she made her initial statement to police, which she did not sign, Young said. It is standard procedure for police to re-interview people who give an initial statement while intoxicated because statements made under the influence of alcohol don't stand up well in court, he said.

In a statement the woman signed Saturday, she said she did not want to pursue the matter, Young said.

"She said she was way too intoxicated and doesn't want anything to do with anything," he said.

Gibbons' statement to police and the woman's original statement agree that he did try to grab the woman's arm. However, Gibbons' account is that the gesture was innocent, even chivalrous in nature, and not an assault.

Police interviewed Gibbons on Saturday. Gibbons' statement was that he was helping the woman out of the restaurant around 10 p.m. when she slipped and fell. He tried to grab her to keep her from falling. When she picked herself up, "she had a very odd look on her face," Young said Gibbons told police.

The two then parted ways, with Gibbons walking to his room in the Residence Inn Marriott, also in Hughes Center, where he was staying alone, according to his campaign.

At 11:18 p.m., the woman called police from the restaurant with a claim of "assault/battery," according to a police log. Young confirmed the lapse in time but didn't know the reason behind it.

The woman told police she had been drinking since 4 p.m., while Gibbons said he had two glasses of wine over the course of the evening and was not intoxicated, Young said.

Republican political guru Sig Rogich, an adviser to Gibbons' campaign, said he was with Gibbons at McCormick & Schmick's just before the incident occurred. Rogich's office is also in Hughes Center.

Rogich said the two men had a dinner meeting with six campaign donors beginning around 6:30 p.m. The meeting lasted until about 8:30 p.m.; Rogich and Gibbons left the restaurant between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. and parted ways, Rogich said. He would not name the donors or say whether Gibbons interacted with the woman inside the restaurant.

"This entire episode is preposterous," Rogich said. "It's sad. It simply did not happen."

Tyler Schilz, a waiter at McCormick & Schmick's who worked both Friday and Saturday night, said he didn't see anything but heard from co-workers Friday night that Gibbons was in the bar area drinking with some women. Schilz was in the restaurant's dining room, which is separated from the bar.

Some time later, Schilz said, eight or nine police officers arrived and wouldn't allow anyone to leave the restaurant until they had interviewed everyone they needed to.

Gibbons' campaign said the candidate was scheduled to fly to Reno this morning with his wife, Dawn, who joined him in Las Vegas on Saturday morning.

Referring to the woman who made and then decided not to pursue the complaint, Gibbons campaign manager Robert Uithoven said, "What she alleged to have happened didn't happen. Even Metro has proven that it didn't happen."