Judge rejects former detective’s claim against prosecutor

RENO -- A federal judge has rejected claims by a former Washoe County sheriff's detective that Washoe District Attorney Richard Gammick retaliated against him.

Judge Roger Hunt ruled that Rene Botello failed to prove that Gammick and Assistant District Attorney John Helzer intentionally retaliated against him for challenging the accuracy of child abuse reports by a unit of the prosecutor's office. The six-day trial ended Nov. 5.

"My hope during this entire thing was that we would get a fair shake from the system," Gammick said. "And I can say yes, we got a fair shake."

Botello's lawyer, Diane Vaillancourt, said the ruling would be appealed.

"They can appeal all they want to," Gammick said. "In my humble opinion, there are no grounds for an appeal. I think you can see from the decision of the judge that this case was completely meritless and basically a fiction."

The lawsuit filed in 2003 in U.S. District Court in Reno claimed Gammick and Helzer violated Botello's First Amendment right to free speech when Gammick said he would never use Botello as a witness for the prosecution in any cases.

"There is no credible evidence that either defendant defamed Botello," Hunt wrote in his decision.

Botello was Washoe County sheriff's deputy and investigating child sexual assault cases in 2001-02 and began to question the accuracy of the testimony of a nurse in the Child Abuse Response and Evaluations unit and asked for an investigation.

The nurse determined a girl was not a virgin, but a later examination found the nurse was wrong.

Hunt said Botello's "adamant demands" that the nurse be disciplined and investigated while refusing to work with the district attorney's office to conduct an investigation was "unreasonable and in reckless disregard" of the rights of the nurse.

Botello resigned from the sheriff's office in September 2002 and applied at the Washoe County School District police force. His lawsuit claimed Gammick and Helzer pressured the department not to hire him and threatened to refuse to file any prosecutions in cases involving Botello because he would not be a credible witness.

Hunt said Gammick and Helzer did not initiate contact with school police, their communication with that agency was discrete and therefore were allowed immunity.

"They did not advise police officers during the investigative phase of any investigation about how to use Botello or other officers" Hunt said. "They merely advised that the district attorney's office could not use Botello as a witness in any prosecution."