Erick Kristian Rockey Former boyfriend said he didn't know what happened to money

The woman accusing Republican Congressman Jim Gibbons of assault is linked to an allegedly bogus sale of a pickup last year in which a Las Vegas couple said they were taken for $15,250.

Thomas Lapp said Monday he and his wife, Julia, tried to buy Chrissy Mazzeo's 2002 Ford F-150 from the cocktail waitress last year. But after paying more than $15,000 to Mazzeo and her then-boyfriend, Erick Kristian Rockey, the two never produced a title for the vehicle, Lapp said.

Mazzeo and Rockey also had promised to pay off Mazzeo's outstanding loan on the truck but failed to do so. The truck was repossessed, Thomas Lapp said. He said he has yet to be reimbursed for what he now thinks was a scam.

Lapp's wife reported the details of the truck sale to Henderson police in July 2005. The police investigated and concluded in a report: "This case lacks any prosecutable merit and is a civil issue between Chrissy Mazzeo and Julia Lapp."

Mazzeo's lawyer, Richard Wright, declined comment on this story Monday.

Thomas Lapp said his dealings with Mazzeo and Rockey started in May 2005, when he and his wife noticed a truck for sale in a vacant lot near Silverado Ranch and Eastern Avenue. He called the number listed on the vehicle and spoke to Mazzeo. The truck was for sale at approximately $18,500, Thomas Lapp recalled.

The two parties negotiated a sale price of $15,250, and Thomas Lapp said he wrote a check to Mazzeo for $2,800 to start the purchase. He said the money was to cover the difference between the sale price and the amount Mazzeo owed on the truck to Ford Motor Credit, which he said was a little more than $12,000.

"She came by and picked the check up at my house," Thomas Lapp said.

He said Mazzeo asked him and his wife to deal with Rockey, the father of Mazzeo's child, regarding the truck sale. Thomas Lapp mailed a check for a little more than $12,000 to Ford Motor Credit, which had financed the vehicle for Mazzeo, to pay off the outstanding loan balance.

The check was returned because Ford said it did not have the authority to accept the payment, he said.

In speaking with Rockey, Thomas Lapp said they agreed he would send a check to Rockey's company to pay off the outstanding loan balance. According to Henderson police reports, Julia Lapp "gave Chrissy and Eric a cashier's check for $12,484.40."

The Lapps took possession of the truck, but they never received a bill of sale or title for the vehicle. They contacted Ford Credit and learned the loan had never been paid off.

Julia Lapp told police she contacted Mazzeo but was no longer able to get in touch with Rockey. Thomas Lapp said he called Mazzeo too.

"We asked her for the bill of sale, and she said she was going to drop one off at our house," Thomas Lapp said. "She said she came by, stuck it in our door, and left. This was after we had given them the check, and it (the bill of sale) was not there.

"When we called her again, and we told her it was not there, her reply was, 'Just make one up,' " he said.

Thomas Lapp said months later he received a notice in the mail saying that in her bankruptcy filing, Mazzeo had listed the Lapps as potential creditors for $13,300. He decided to attend a court proceeding and confronted Mazzeo about the truck sale.

"She said, 'It wasn't my fault,'" Thomas Lapp said. "She blamed it on her boyfriend."

When he checked Mazzeo's bankruptcy filing, he learned Mazzeo had listed Ford Motor Credit as a creditor for $12,118.

"How can you claim $13,000 worth of losses when you didn't lose anything?" Thomas Lapp said.

According to the Henderson police report, detectives contacted Rockey, who offered the following explanation: "Erick said that he was an employee of Credit Services Inc., and asked his boss if he would deposit the cashier's check and pay off the vehicle, to which this unknown individual agreed. (Rockey) said that he had no ties with the purchase or selling portion of the vehicle, and that Credit Services Inc. then 'went under.' (He said) that he does not know what happened to the funds or the business."

Private investigator Tom Dillard, who is working for Gibbons, said he has secured documentation from California's Orange County Superior Court indicating Rockey was previously convicted of criminal charges related to another vehicle sale and a dispute over ownership paperwork.

In the Henderson police report, officers said: "Erick said that Chrissy feels bad about the incident and in an attempt to make things right, Chrissy listed Julia (Lapp) as a (creditor) when she filed bankruptcy in an attempt to have Julia repaid."

An examination of Mazzeo's schedule of creditors in her 2005 bankruptcy filing shows she had incurred a significant amount of personal debt. She claimed more than $110,000 in bills from credit cards, medical bills and student loans.

A filing in Las Vegas Justice Court showed that Mazzeo was the subject of a felony warrant in 2005. Clark County prosecutor Bernie Zadrowski, chief of the district attorney's Bad Check Unit, said the warrant was dismissed when Mazzeo reimbursed Nevada Power for a debt of $352.71.

In 2004, she filed a complaint with Henderson police, alleging Rockey unlawfully broke into her home. Police described Rockey in one report as Mazzeo's "ex-boyfriend." The report said that at the time, Mazzeo was dating a Las Vegas police officer, "Joey Hernandez," who asked Rockey to leave the residence, and Rockey complied.

Other police reports showed Mazzeo brought a complaint against another boyfriend and accused him of assaulting her at a hotel in Laughlin when she was passed out in July. That matter remains under investigation.