Jim Gibbons Former congressman was elected governor in November Chrissy Mazzeo Cocktail waitress says she was telling the truth about being coerced

It's still Chrissy Mazzeo's word against everyone else's.

That was the determination of the Clark County district attorney's office as it announced Thursday that there was insufficient evidence to support charges that Mazzeo was pressured in October to drop assault allegations against Jim Gibbons, then a Republican congressman running for governor.

"We reviewed the evidence in its totality to come to the conclusion we could not prove charges beyond a reasonable doubt," said Clark County District Attorney David Roger.

Mazzeo accused Gibbons, who in November was elected governor, of assaulting her in a Las Vegas parking garage on Oct. 13 after a night of drinking. Gibbons, 62, was cleared of assaulting Mazzeo, but the 32-year-old cocktail waitress also had lodged other explosive allegations: that her one-time friend, Pennie Puhek, relayed threats and bribe offers from the Gibbons camp to try to get her to recant her story.

In investigating the allegations of threats and bribery attempts over the past month, the district attorney's office examined cell phone records of Mazzeo, Puhek, Gibbons' campaign consultant Sig Rogich and others from October and November. Those phone records showed that Mazzeo and Puhek called each other repeatedly after the Oct. 13 incident and that there were 18 calls between Rogich and Puhek after Mazzeo made her accusations against Gibbons, according to a report from the district attorney's office.

But Puhek told the Review-Journal on Thursday that she actually talked to Rogich only on a couple of occasions.

Rogich said he tried calling Puhek numerous times, but she did not answer the phone.

When the two did talk, Puhek and Rogich both said there was never any discussion of getting Mazzeo to recant. Instead, Rogich said he'd called Puhek to get an affidavit from her demonstrating that Gibbons did nothing inappropriate on the night in question.

"I was anxious for her (Puhek) to recall the facts at hand," Rogich said.

Of the claim that there was a plan by associates of Gibbons to get Mazzeo to recant through Puhek, Rogich said:

"It's absurd. That's all I can say about it."

Puhek said Thursday that she was pleased to learn the district attorney's office had cleared her of conveying any threats against Mazzeo.

"The findings of the DA investigation comes as no surprise since the allegations were outrageous and fictitious to begin with," Puhek said in a brief statement read to the Review-Journal over the phone. "Now that this unfortunate situation is fully and finally resolved, I look forward to moving on to the things that are important, and I ask that my privacy be respected."

Mazzeo told the Review-Journal on Thursday: "I'm the one who's telling the truth."

She maintained that she was threatened.

But, she said, she wants to move on with her life and put the high-profile encounter with Gibbons behind her.

"I need my life back," she said, adding, "I have a baby."

The single mother of a 3-year-old daughter said she was with Puhek at the McCormick & Schmick's restaurant on the night of Oct. 13 when they encountered Gibbons and Rogich, who was working as Gibbons' campaign adviser. They drank wine at a table with a group that also included Puhek's longtime friend Michelle Diegel and lawyer Georganne Bradley. Bradley and Diegel work at a law firm that shares office space with Rogich's company in the same complex as the restaurant.

After leaving the restaurant that night, Mazzeo called 911 with the claim that Gibbons had pinned her to the wall of the nearby Hughes Center parking garage and threatened to rape her.

Mazzeo withdrew her complaint the next day, saying she didn't want to be involved in a media circus. She later re-filed the complaint, prompting an extensive Las Vegas police investigation.

Gibbons was cleared of the assault allegation after several of Mazzeo's representations to police about the assault could not be proven and surveillance video from the parking garage did not show Mazzeo or Gibbons in the structure.

At a news conference, however, Mazzeo said the Gibbons camp's threats, via Puhek, included a warning that "they'll kill your baby and your family."

Mazzeo said that after the Review-Journal reported the dropped complaint, Puhek said she would have to go further and sign a statement recanting her claims.

"Chrissy told her, 'I did my part. I don't want to do anything further,'" Mazzeo's lawyer, Richard Wright, said at a news conference in October.

"But Pennie persisted: 'You have to meet with these people,'" Wright told reporters. The next day, "Pennie called and said, 'There's money in this. You will get money from signing this,'" Wright said.

Mazzeo said at the news conference that Puhek never named a specific amount and that when Mazzeo asked from whom the offer was coming, Puhek said, "the Gibbons party."

According to police statements obtained Thursday by the Review-Journal through an open records request, Rogich never mentions in his statement to police that he spoke directly with Puhek or tried to contact her. But during an interview with Las Vegas police on Nov. 2, Rogich said he asked Diegel to act as a go-between to persuade Puhek to sign a statement about the alleged assault.

"I did try to get statements from the girls when they were fresh in their minds," he told police, according to his statements to police. "I asked Michelle ... uh, I asked Michelle to ask Pennie if she would give a statement. Uh, and she finally did on Wednesday. She (Puhek) came down to the office. I had her talk to her attorney. She called her attorney and then gave a statement. I asked if we could notarize it. She did."

According to Puhek, however, Rogich tried to contact her and left a message on her cell phone.

Puhek told detectives on Nov. 1 that Diegel had called and asked her to provide a statement four days after the alleged assault. Puhek said she didn't want to get involved and told Diegel that she wouldn't sign any type of statement. But Diegel asked if she could give Puhek's cell phone number to "them," which Puhek agreed to, according to her statement. The report didn't specify to whom Diegel was seeking to provide Puhek's cell phone number.

After their conversation, private investigator David Groover, who worked for Gibbons' attorney Don Campbell, called Puhek and asked if she would be willing to make a statement. Puhek didn't return this call.

She said the next day, "Sig Rogich's office called me and left a voice mail ... asking me if, um, I wouldn't mind providing a statement, um, to their office and, which I didn't call him back at that time," she told detectives.

An attorney who is a family friend of Puhek called Rogich and told him that Puhek didn't want to get involved in the case. The friend later told Puhek that "Mr. Rogich apologized. That that was the number that he had given and, you know, he apologized for calling me," according to her statement. The family friend's name is not noted.

She also told detectives that she and Mazzeo had several conversations about the incident. Mazzeo and Puhek spoke about 2 a.m. on the day after the alleged assault. Puhek said Chrissy was laughing and couldn't describe the alleged attack without laughing.

"Her statement was, 'All he had to do was ask me out,'" Puhek told police. When asked what she thought this meant, Puhek said Mazzeo was probably just "being silly" or making light of the situation.

Diegel told police she recalled Rogich's assistant, Chris Cole, calling her the day after the alleged assault. Rogich himself called her later that day.

"Diegel said that Rogich only asked her if she recalled anything inappropriate happening on Friday evening while they were seated at the table," according to investigative reports released Thursday by the district attorney's office.

Bradley also told investigators that she was never asked or pressured by anyone regarding her account to police, which indicated she saw Gibbons do nothing inappropriate that night.

Gibbons' spokesman, Brent Boynton, declined a request for an interview on the matter.

"The governor has nothing more to say on the topic," Boynton said. "He has always known he did nothing improper. This issue has been over for him practically since the allegation was made."

Mazzeo's attorney, Wright, did not respond to a request for comment.

Review-Journal staff writer Francis McCabe contributed to this report.