Judge’s ruling hurts Davidson’s defense strategy

U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt dealt a significant blow to Donald Davidson's defense Wednesday when he refused to allow Davidson's attorneys to embark on a line of questioning they believed would have caused jurors to doubt their client's guilt.

The argument revolved around a key prosecution witness, Daniel Geiger, who served as former Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny's accountant and campaign finance manager from 1998 to 2002.

Prosecutors were allowed to ask Geiger whether Kenny's late father, Charles Callin, told him that she expected "a lot of money" if a Clark County Commission vote went a certain way in 2001.

The government contends Geiger was speaking of $200,000 it claims Donald Davidson delivered to Kenny after she pushed through zone changes and special use permits that allowed for a controversial CVS Pharmacy to be built on the corner of Buffalo Drive and Desert Inn Road.

Defense attorney Dominic Gentile said he does not dispute Kenny was paid for her vote. But, he said, broker Tommy Fehrman, who was in the process of buying the property, arranged the payment to Kenny, Gentile said during opening statements.

Fehrman testified earlier this week that he thought he was paying Donald Davidson a fee for his lobbying success.

Gentile planned to ask Geiger whether Kenny's father told him of another large sum of money Kenny expected to receive in mid-2002, nearly a year after the CVS vote. Hunt, however, prohibited Gentile from questioning Geiger about the second conversation with Callin.

Hunt ruled there was no proof that Kenny received an additional payment in 2002. He said there was no evidence a crime was committed.

The ruling hurt Gentile's defense strategy because during opening statements he told jurors that there had been a 2002 conversation between Geiger and Callin during which Callin mentioned that Kenny expected to receive money.

Gentile contends the payment was for Kenny's support for another Fehrman project. Davidson was not involved in the deal, Gentile said.

In 2002, Fehrman's company sought a zoning change at Sunset Road and Tenaya Drive. Fehrman hoped to build 300 homes on 32 acres underneath McCarran International Airport's busy flight paths. Airport administrators and others furiously opposed the proposal, but Kenny voted in favor of it.

Strategically, Commissioner Bruce Woodbury also voted in favor of the project, a move that gave him the ability to place the item on a later agenda for reconsideration. Woodbury refused to put the proposal back on the agenda until Kenny left office. When he did, the approval was rescinded.

Gentile said the large sum of money was never transferred to Kenny because she was not a commissioner during the reconsideration hearing and Fehrman's development wound up being rejected.

Gentile unsuccessfully argued Wednesday that, armed with the details surrounding the second payment offered to Kenny, jurors might find reasonable doubt that Davidson was involved in the first payoff.