Gibbons accuser pursues lawsuit

Chrissy Mazzeo, the Las Vegas cocktail waitress who claimed two years ago that she was assaulted by then-gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons, filed a federal lawsuit against the Republican governor on Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges that Mazzeo's constitutional rights to due process and equal protection were violated in the incident and subsequent police investigation. It seeks damages of more than $10,000.

Also named in the lawsuit are Las Vegas political consultant Sig Rogich, the Metropolitan Police Department, former Sheriff Bill Young, lawyer Don Campbell and Pennie Mossett-Puhek, the friend who was with Mazzeo at the seafood restaurant where she met Gibbons on the night of Oct. 13, 2006, three weeks before Gibbons, then a member of Congress, would be elected the state's chief executive.

Gibbons spokesman Ben Kieckhefer said the governor, in Washington, D.C., for the week, was unavailable to comment on the lawsuit. "He'll make a statement at some point in the future, when the time is right," Kieckhefer said.

A spokesman for Rogich said he wasn't going to comment, considering it was nothing more than "a publicity stunt." Young, who now works for a casino company, didn't return a call seeking comment.

Mazzeo's lawyer on the lawsuit, Las Vegas attorney Robert Kossack, said it was filed Tuesday because Monday, the two-year anniversary of the incident and a federal holiday, marked the end of the statute of limitations for the crimes alleged. Included with the lawsuit was a plea to those sympathetic to Mazzeo to contribute funds to her defense.

On that rainy night two years ago, Mazzeo and Mossett-Puhek drank with Gibbons and Rogich at McCormick & Schmick's, in the Hughes Center complex near Flamingo and Paradise roads. Then, after offering to walk her to her car, Gibbons shoved Mazzeo against a parking garage wall and announced he planned to rape her, she claims.

Mazzeo escaped Gibbons' clutches thanks to a well-timed kick in the shins, according to the lawsuit, and called police. That's when she claims the cover-up began, with Mossett-Puhek, a Republican, relaying threats from Rogich and trying to get Mazzeo to change her story.

Meanwhile, Young, a Republican who had endorsed Gibbons, "kept Rogich and Gibbons informed of the investigation's progress," a privilege that wouldn't have been afforded an average potential criminal defendant. Rogich served as a political adviser to both Gibbons and Young, who left office when his term ended at the end of 2006.

At the time, Gibbons acknowledged walking Mazzeo to her car but said he did nothing improper. He said he had reached out to grab her arm to stop her from falling when she slipped on wet pavement.

Several months after Gibbons won election despite the scandal, the district attorney's office determined there wasn't enough evidence to pursue criminal charges.

In May of this year, Gibbons filed for divorce from his wife of more than 20 years.

The lawsuit largely rehashes the version of events Mazzeo has previously told, including a profanity-laced scene in the parking garage, a mad dash through a succession of Hughes Center parking lots as she tried to get police to come to her aid, and a harrowing barrage of politically charged pressure in the ensuing days as Gibbons and his allies are alleged to have worked to cover up their crimes.

The lawsuit also claims a friendly police officer assured Mazzeo there was evidence, including surveillance tapes, to back up her claims, but he then disappeared and "was never heard of again."

During the investigation, surveillance tapes from the parking garage surfaced several days after police had said there were none. Gibbons' lawyer successfully sued to get the tapes; neither Gibbons nor Mazzeo appeared on them.

Campbell, who has represented the Review-Journal in lawsuits, was Gibbons' lawyer in the matter. On Tuesday, he said he believed he had been named in the lawsuit to prevent him from defending Gibbons against it.

"My reaction (to the lawsuit) was that a delusional plaintiff had found an equally delusional attorney," Campbell said. "This complaint ... is devoid of any factual accuracy and lacks even a scintilla of legal merit." He vowed to "take every single avenue to expose this for what it is."

Mossett-Puhek on Tuesday called the lawsuit "ridiculous" and said she'd filed a complaint about Kossack, the lawyer, with the state Bar Association.

Mossett-Puhek said Kossack called her last week and tried to "bully" her into changing the statement she made to police last year. She said he threatened to treat her as a co-conspirator in the case if Mossett-Puhek didn't change her statement.

"I don't get it," Mossett-Puhek said. "Wasn't there something in the news about the police spending 700 hours trying to prove what she (Mazzeo) said?"

The Police Department declined to comment, citing the department policy of not commenting on pending litigation. Officer Bill Cassell, a police spokesman, said the department had not yet had a chance to review the lawsuit Tuesday.

According to the lawsuit, Mazzeo now lives in Orange County, Calif. Kossack said Mazzeo left Las Vegas after she was "pretty much blacklisted following the incident" and Strip resorts refused to hire her.

In going public with her side of the story, Mazzeo previously said she was only trying to defend herself and didn't want money. Asked about her apparent reversal, Kossack said the lingering consequences of the incident have prevented the now-34-year-old single mother from moving on with her life.

"I think what she said was if he had just apologized at the right time, this could have all gone away, but a lot of other things have happened," Kossack said.

Review-Journal writer David Kihara contributed to this report. Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.