Nevada gov. asks judge to shield phone records

LAS VEGAS — Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons has asked a federal judge to shield his phone records from a former cocktail waitress who accuses him of accosting her outside a Las Vegas restaurant in 2006.

Gibbons’ lawyers contend in documents filed this week that releasing the records to Chrissy Mazzeo’s lawyer would violate Gibbons’ privacy and an earlier court order limiting evidence collection in Mazzeo’s federal lawsuit against the governor.

Mazzeo lawyer Robert Kossack said Thursday he wants to know who Gibbons talked with after he encountered his client in a parking garage outside the restaurant.

“You use the phone records to get names of people he may have talked to and get relevant information about the state tort claim,” Kossack said. “For all I know, he called a friend and confessed.”

Mazzeo has accused Gibbons of battery, false imprisonment and orchestrating a cover-up in October 2006 just before the then-congressman was elected governor. She has alleged that Las Vegas police, former Clark County Sheriff Bill Young and campaign adviser Sig Rogich were part of the cover-up effort.

Gibbons has said the woman’s allegations are “simply false.” No criminal charges were filed.

Gibbons’ lawyer, Pat Lundvall, filed an emergency request in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Monday for a protective order, citing previous court rulings limiting Kossack’s efforts to collect evidence from the defense until after the court decides whether the lawsuit will go forward.

Lundvall accused Kossack of trying to circumvent the court rulings by subpoenaing from the Clark County district attorney’s office phone records that investigators turned over in 2006. Some cell phone records have been released publicly, including records showing Rogich communicated with Young after the incident.

“You shouldn’t be able to get, through the back door, what you can’t get through the front door,” Lundvall said Thursday.

No date was immediately set for a hearing on Lundvall’s request.

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, www.lvrj.com