Milam slated to testify Friday

Embattled Texas developer Chris Milam, the focus of a land fraud lawsuit by the city of Henderson, has a 9 a.m. Friday appointment at a Las Vegas law office to testify under oath about his finances.

It’s a date at the law firm of Carbajal & McNutt, where Milam is scheduled to come face-to-face with the firm’s client, Idaho lawyer Harry DeHaan, who won a $1.1 million court judgment against Milam in the wake of a failed condo project near the Strip. The Nevada Supreme Court upheld the judgment in November — about six years after DeHaan’s original lawsuit against Milam.

DeHaan has enlisted lawyer Dan McNutt to track Milam’s every legal step in the wake of Henderson’s lawsuit against the developer in hopes of getting Milam to pay the judgment.

“I want the money,” DeHaan said Tuesday. “Dan is assisting me to collect the judgment .”

In legal terms, Milam will be participating Friday in a “judgment debtor exam” where he will make statements under oath in response to questions by McNutt about Milam’s assets and financial resources.

Interest on the original $1.1 million judgment has bloated the final tab to more than $1.4 million, McNutt said. DeHaan has recovered only $100,000 in the form of a bond posted by Milam during the appeal process, McNutt said.

DeHaan “is committed to recovering all of the damages and interest for however long that takes,” McNutt said.

Well before 2011, when Milam pitched a major pro sports complex in Henderson, DeHaan accused Milam of lying about the source of money he brought into a partnership with former Hard Rock Hotel owner Peter Morton on the $1.2 billion condo tower project in 2005. DeHaan’s lawsuit a year later led to the $1.1 million fraud judgment against Milam.

Milam’s lawyer on appeal, Pat Lundvall, said her client’s testimony on Friday will not have an effect on Henderson’s legal action. City officials accuse Milam of using a fraudulent land scheme to promise an arena-and-stadium complex on 480 acres of federal land while intending to buy the land and flip it for homes and business use.

Asked why Milam has not paid the judgment to DeHaan, Lundvall said, “You’ll have to ask Chris that.”

Milam could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Lundvall is also representing one of the four defendants in the Henderson lawsuit against Milam — public relations specialist Lee Haney, who worked as a consultant for Milam in Henderson.

DeHaan said he will be at McNutt’s office Friday, but he doesn’t expect Milam to be forthcoming about his finances.

“I suspect cries of poverty on Friday,” he said.

Henderson’s Jan. 28 lawsuit against Milam and the $1.1 million judgment against Milam several years ago crossed paths in the courtroom of District Court Judge Susan Scann on Feb. 5, when the audience packed with lawyers connected to Henderson’s lawsuit also included McNutt, who was there monitoring Milam’s legal maneuvers for DeHaan.

The city sued Milam, seeking an injunction that would prohibit him from using the land for anything except a stadium or arena.

Milam has paid $10.5 million to the Bureau of Land Management for the 480 acres — and DeHaan is curious where the developer got that money.

“It has to be someone who put that money up, and I’d like to know who ,” DeHaan said.

The $10.5 million is in escrow. The Bureau of Land Management sale closing will not happen before March 28. The Inspector General is investigating the land deal.

“I will be very excited if he doesn’t show up,’’ DeHaan said, “because he will be in contempt of court.”

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273.