Judge refuses to toss lawsuit against Gov. Gibbons

LAS VEGAS - A federal judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit by a former cocktail waitress who accuses Gov. Jim Gibbons of accosting her outside a Las Vegas restaurant in October 2006 and of orchestrating a cover-up when she went public.

U.S. District Court Judge Roger Hunt ruled that Chrissy Mazzeo can go forward with allegations that she was denied equal protection by the Republican governor and several other defendants, including his lawyer, his political adviser, Las Vegas police, the former Clark County sheriff and a former Mazzeo friend.

"She was treated differently because she was lodging a complaint against the candidate for governor," Mazzeo attorney Robert Kossack said. "They used the police investigation to essentially smear her instead of taking her allegations seriously."

Mazzeo accuses Gibbons, then a 61-year-old U.S. congressman running for governor, of grabbing her in a parking garage after the two met at a bar and drank there with friends. Mazzeo, now 35, accuses police and Gibbons' associates of manipulating or destroying evidence including a security videotape from the garage.

In his ruling, issued Monday, Hunt tossed out Mazzeo's claim that she was defamed or stigmatized, or that defendants kept her from getting a job after she went public with her complaint.

Gibbons attorney Pat Lundvall didn't immediately respond Wednesday to a message seeking comment.

However, she told the Las Vegas Sun for a Wednesday report that the case will let the governor and other defendants "rid themselves of any residual taint from the allegations raised against them."

Thomas Dillard, an attorney for former Clark County Sheriff Bill Young, said Hunt's ruling narrowed a "shotgun approach" in the complaint Kossack filed in October.

John Marcin, attorney for former Mazzeo friend Pennie Mossett-Puhek, noted that the judge's order on legal matters didn't address the merits of Mazzeo's case.

"We still think, obviously, that her claims are preposterous and will be proven as such," Marcin said.

Kossack filed a revised complaint Tuesday, narrowing the case to allege Mazzeo's free speech and equal protection rights were violated.

Kossack also said he believed Hunt's ruling opened the door for him to collect evidence from Gibbons and other parties in the case. Gibbons' lawyers have fought to shield the governor's phone records, claiming their release to Kossack would violate Gibbons' privacy and an earlier court order limiting evidence collection.

The judge rejected arguments that Young and Las Vegas police were immune from the suit because investigators and their top administrator were acting in their official capacities.

"A reasonable officer would know that he was violating Mazzeo's constitutional rights by using his investigation to cover up a crime," the judge wrote.