State Supreme Court justices deny tipping HOA conspirator to FBI raids

The identity of the Nevada Supreme Court justice alleged to have tipped off a construction defect lawyer to the federal homeowners association investigation in 2008 remained a secret Tuesday.

This came as all seven of the justices on the high court when the late Nancy Quon was thought to have received the tip denied speaking to Quon about the high-profile investigation.

On Monday, a witness in the trial of four remaining defendants charged in the massive scheme to take over and defraud HOAs testified she was told a Supreme Court justice had alerted Quon before FBI-led raids across the valley in September 2008. Quon’s law office was one of many sites searched.

Deborah Genato, who pleaded guilty in the multi-million-dollar scheme, told a jury under cross-examination that she learned about Quon’s tip from her boss, Lisa Kim, who ran a company that managed several HOAs linked to the six-year conspiracy that began in 2003.

Bret Whipple, the defense lawyer who questioned Genato on the witness stand, did not press her for a name, and a Justice Department prosecutor later avoided the subject.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James Mahan outside the presence of the jury refused to allow Whipple to discuss the allegation with a Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter during the trial or to release government documents on the subject that were provided to the defense. Mahan said a protective order bars both sides from making public investigative documents.

Prosecutors appeared ready to oppose the release of any information, though Mahan did not ask for their input.

Several attorneys and former police officers were charged in the long-running HOA investigation, but no judges or Supreme Court justices have been accused.

Paul Deyhle, executive director of the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline, said Tuesday his panel has jurisdiction to investigate allegations of professional misconduct involving the Supreme Court.

In this case, he said, the commission “would certainly” take action if there is “more evidence out there” and the evidence can be verified.

Since Genato’s testimony, Justices James Hardesty, Nancy Saitta, Michael Cherry, Ron Parraguirre, Michael Douglas and Mark Gibbons and former Justice William Maupin all said they did not have any conversations with Quon about the HOA fraud investigation.

Several justices, including Cherry, said they didn’t even know about the investigation until the raids became public.

Between 2001 and 2006, Cherry, Saitta and former District Judge Allan Earl handled all construction defect cases in Clark County, Cherry said. Both he and Saitta were elected to the Supreme Court in November 2006.

“I have never spoken to Nancy Quon about this or any other investigation, civil or criminal, and would certainly deny any allegations that there was such a conversation,” Saitta said.

Quon, considered by prosecutors as one of the central figures in the HOA takeover scheme, committed suicide in March 2012 under the weight of the federal investigation. She was not charged at the time.

Prosecutors contend the mastermind of the scheme, former construction company boss Leon Benzer, worked closely with Quon to obtain lucrative contracts from the HOAs. He pleaded guilty to the charges several weeks before the trial. Prosecutors plan to rest their case case on Wednesday against the remaining defendants, which include one of Benzer’s civil lawyers, Keith Gregory.

Attorney Thomas Pitaro, who defended Quon in the HOA investigation until her suicide, described the leak allegation as an “ugly rumor that had no basis in fact.

“To the best of my knowledge, the Justice Department looked into it and found it had no merit,” Pitaro said.

In March 2011, the Review-Journal reported that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation to determine whether prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Las Vegas leaked information that allowed Quon to alter or destroy evidence.

Investigators also tried to determine if any prominent officials outside the federal government, including judges Quon knew, might have passed information to Quon. But the Justice Department announced in late August 2011 that it had dropped the leak investigation without filing charges just as the first of the 37 defendants pleaded guilty in the takeover scheme.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter @JGermanRJ.