Accuser of eTreppid hires new lawyers

RENO -- A software engineer who claims that Gov. Jim Gibbons took gratuities and money from a Reno company in exchange for defense contracts has hired new lawyers to help in his case and represent him in an expanding investigation.

Former eTreppid software designer Dennis Montgomery has hired Los Angeles lawyer Deborah Klar to help with his civil case against eTreppid Technologies and his former partner, Warren Trepp, according to Montgomery's Reno attorney, Ron Logar.

Klar will replace Michael Flynn, who asked to be released from the case because he was not being paid.

Washington, D.C., lawyer Robert Bennett also has joined Montgomery's legal team, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported Monday. "I will represent Mr. Montgomery in connection with his role as a cooperating witness in the Department of Justice investigation into Gov. Gibbons," said Bennett, who represented President Clinton in the Paula Jones case, New York Times reporter Judith Miller in the CIA leak investigation and Paul Wolfowitz in his departure from the World Bank.

The legal battles began last year after Montgomery left eTreppid and filed a civil lawsuit claiming that Trepp had duped him out of money promised for his work. Trepp filed a countersuit, claiming that Montgomery stole critical source codes for software when he left.

Montgomery said eTreppid never owned the software he developed.

The story grew when claims were made that Trepp took Gibbons and his wife, Dawn, on a Caribbean cruise and gave money and gifts in exchange for help landing lucrative defense contracts.

The FBI and a federal grand jury are looking into the claims. Trepp and Gibbons deny any wrongdoing.

Joining in the shuffling of lawyers has been eTreppid. Last month, San Francisco lawyer Jeffrey Ross was removed from the company's list of attorneys. Three days later, Washington D.C., attorney Reid Weingarten came on.

Stephen Peek, Trepp's Reno attorney, said the departure of Ross was aimed at simplifying their representation.

"There was no reason to have three law firms involved in this case," Peek said.

Gibbons is represented Abbe Lowell, another Washington, D.C., attorney.

Lowell, who represented former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former U.S. Rep. Gary Condit of California, said Montgomery's new lawyers don't concern him.

"As Dennis Montgomery is publicly accused of corporate wrongdoing, lying and fabricating evidence, he can use all the lawyers he can afford," Lowell told the newspaper.