FBI informant culprit in case, attorney says
June 20, 2001
By Ryan Oliver
Las Vegas Review Journal

Analyst willing to help in FBI probe
June 21, 2001
By Jeff German
Las Vegas Sun

James J. Hill, the Las Vegas FBI security analyst charged with selling top-secret investigative information, wants to help the FBI look for other leaks at the local field office, his lawyer said Wednesday.

"We are going to cooperate with the government to get to the bottom of this," attorney Barry Levinson told reporters outside the federal courthouse after Hill was ordered to remain behind bars.

FBI spokesman Daron Borst this morning declined to respond to Levinson's offer.

"We are conducting a thorough investigation," Borst said. "It will uncover the scope of the illegal activity."

Levinson said there was no way Hill could have sold the massive amount of classified FBI documents as alleged in a complaint against his client.

"I don't buy the government's theory," Levinson said. "If we have to, we'll help them find the leaks."

Hill's wife, Patty, told the Sun her husband has not turned over any sensitive files.

"I know the man's character," she said. "I know he's a good man."

She also identified another FBI employee who may have leaked confidential information to former FBI agent Mike Levin, now a Las Vegas private investigator.

Levin, forced to resign from the FBI in 1997 because of alleged government credit card abuses, reportedly was arrested in New York June 14 on charges of stealing and selling classified FBI information.

He agreed to cooperate and told FBI agents that he obtained the information from Hill and paid Hill $25,000 for hundreds of confidential FBI records since November 1999.

Levin allegedly said he then sold that information to organized crime members and other criminal FBI targets.

The six-page complaint filed against Hill in New York identifies Levin only as a private investigator and a confidential informant.

Levin, who has been seen driving around town in a new Porsche, was reported to be back in Las Vegas. He could not be reached for comment today.

Attorney Steve Wolfson, who rents office space to Levin, said he has not seen the private investigator all week.

But Wolfson said FBI agents showed up Monday with a warrant to search Levin's office.

The agents, Wolfson said, told him that Levin had given his consent to conduct the search.

At a brief detention hearing Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Lawrence Leavitt ordered Hill to remain in custody and transported to New York to face theft and obstruction of justice charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Parella argued that Hill should remain behind bars while he fights the charges because he was a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Parella said Hill also was an obstruction of justice risk.

Hill, a 20-year Air Force veteran who has worked for the Las Vegas FBI office since 1991, had access to national security and electronic surveillance information, as well as confidential informants and witnesses data stored in the FBI's national computer system.

Levinson did not oppose the government's arguments at the hearing, which was packed with reporters, prosecutors and FBI agents.

The gray-haired Hill, wearing khaki jail garb, appeared calm as Leavitt explained that he could have another detention hearing in New York.

Levinson said afterward that he planned to file a motion asking for Hill to be released on bail.

Hill, who has been placed on administrative leave by the FBI, is shocked by the charges, Levinson said.

"He can't believe it," the lawyer said. "It's like surreal to him."

FBI and Justice Department officials, meanwhile, remained tight-lipped today about the ongoing internal and criminal investigations.

Agents are continuing to assess the damage caused by the theft of the confidential records, which referred to criminal cases and grand jury investigations.

Copyright © Las Vegas Sun

Ex-Agent sold FBI papers to Mob:Feds
June 21, 2001
By Al Guart and Murrey Weiss
New York Post

The middleman accused of purchasing secret documents from an FBI employee and then selling them to mobsters is a retired FBI agent named Michael Levin, who works as a private eye in Las Vegas, The Post has learned.

Levin was arrested last week on Long Island and immediately began cutting a deal, sources said.

He identified James Hill, an Air Force veteran and security analyst in the FBI's Las Vegas office, as the supplier of his documents, according to a complaint, filed in Brooklyn federal court, that identifies Levin only as "CI" or confidential informant.

Levin also is expected to name his customers, the sources said.

The complaint said Hill admitted selling FBI secrets relating to organized crime, white-collar investigations and immigrant smuggling.

When "CI" was picked up Thursday in Oyster Bay, he had numerous secret documents on him, the complaint said. He told authorities where he got them and revealed he recently he sold similar documents for $4,000 to a man under federal indictment.

"CI" then allegedly allowed investigators to record a call to Hill during which he ordered information about a target of a grand-jury probe.

Hill pulled the data up on an FBI computer and faxed it to "CI" in New York, the complaint said.

Hill, 51, was arrested Friday in Las Vegas after allegedly faxing the information, and charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy and the theft and sale of top-secret FBI information.

"The investigation and damage assessment is continuing," the FBI said in a statement yesterday.

Hill had security clearances and access to national security data, the identities of confidential informants, witness lists and electronic surveillance information, according to the complaint.

Telephone records revealed Hill was in communication with people in Cuba and Mexico, and passport records showed Hill had traveled to Colombia, the complaint said.

Levin's arrest remained sealed yesterday.

"My guy is the fall guy," said Hill's lawyer, Barry Levinson.

It's the latest in a series of embarrassments for the FBI, including the arrest of agent Robert Hanssen on spy charges; the disclosure that more than 4,000 FBI documents had been accidentally withheld from lawyers for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh; and the botched investigation last year of former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee.

Copyright © New York Post Corporation

Ex-FBI employee had stormy career
June 21, 2001
By Carri Geer Thevenot
Las Vegas Review Journal

Michael Levin, the private investigator identified by an FBI employee as an informant who bought and sold classified FBI documents, had a stormy eight-year career in the agency's Las Vegas office before he resigned in 1997.

James J. Hill, a 51-year-old FBI employee charged with selling secret documents, has said through his attorney that Levin befriended him and used their relationship to gain classified files.

According to court documents, Levin worked as an FBI agent in Las Vegas for eight years and was suspended without pay twice during that time.

He filed a federal lawsuit in March that accused the agency of invading his privacy by publicly disclosing confidential information from his personnel file.

Government attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case in May.

According to that document, Levin was first suspended for seven days in 1994 "based on a finding that he had used his government credit card for personal purposes." He was suspended a second time in 1996 for 30 days and was placed on probation for one year.

The government motion claims Levin's second suspension was based, in part, on a finding that he had allowed an undercover telephone bill to become so delinquent that it was referred to a collection agency, "thereby compromising the undercover address." He later "intimidated telephone company employees in an attempt to have them write off these debts," the motion alleges.

In addition, according to the document, Levin was accused of attempting to obstruct an inquiry by the Office of Professional Responsibility by contacting a witness in that inquiry.

"Once again, in 1997, plaintiff Levin had used his government credit card for personal purchases and, when questioned about these purchases, gave statements under oath which were not true," the motion further alleges.

That event resulted in a proposal that Levin be dismissed within 30 days, according to the document, but he chose to resign rather than appeal the proposal.

Levin, then a private investigator, testified in April 1999 during the federal trial of Stephen Cupka, a Titanium Metals Corp. employee accused of retaliating against workers who crossed the picket line during a strike at the plant near Henderson.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Shoemaker obtained information on Levin from the FBI's Las Vegas office and used it to discredit his testimony.

Levin denied that FBI officials had told him they were considering firing him because of allegations of his involvement in illegal activity. Upon further questioning, Levin admitted to misconduct and that he had been suspended.

Cupka later was convicted of conspiracy and arson charges. He was sentenced in January 2000 to about three years in prison.

Shoemaker's cross-examination of Levin during the Cupka trial prompted the private investigator to file his lawsuit. The document claims she disclosed confidential matters from his personnel file while questioning him.

According to Levin's complaint, FBI officials told his new employer "that the confidential disclosures would not be made public pursuant to FBI policy and federal law."

The lawsuit claims the disclosures deprived Levin "of his right to earn a living, work as an investigator and serve as an expert witness at trial." It also claims they caused criminal defense attorneys and other potential employers to shun him.

Last week, an unnamed private investigator was arrested in Oyster Bay, N.Y., with classified documents in his possession, an FBI complaint says. Hill's attorney, Barry Levinson, says that private investigator is Levin.

Las Vegas attorney Cal Potter III, who filed the lawsuit on Levin's behalf, said he learned about his client's arrest when he read about it in the newspaper Wednesday morning. Potter said he filed a motion late Wednesday to withdraw from the civil case.

Another Las Vegas attorney, Steven Wolfson, confirmed that FBI agents searched Levin's office on Monday.

"I own an office building," Wolfson said. "I have eight tenants, and he's one of them, and my relationship with him is as his landlord."

Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Senators seek outside panel to look at FBI
June 21, 2001
By Jesse J. Holland
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Senators called for an outside investigation of the FBI yesterday, after a series of embarrassments in such high-profile cases as the Oklahoma City bombing, the Hanssen spy case, and the Ruby Ridge and Waco raids. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the Justice Department will conduct its own inquiry.

"Unfortunately, the image of the FBI in the minds of too many Americans is that this agency has become unmanageable, unaccountable and unreliable," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who is holding a series of hearings on cleaning up the FBI.

Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., want the Senate to pass a bill authorizing outside experts to look at the agency. Ashcroft said his committee would be made up of top Justice Department officials and the heads of the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The committee will "identify and recommend actions dedicated to improving and upgrading the performance of the FBI," Ashcroft said in a memo.

A string of missteps and what critics called a cover-up-the-mistakes mentality at the FBI have put pressure on Congress to take action. In the latest bungle, more than 4,000 FBI documents were withheld from lawyers for Timothy McVeigh, forcing Ashcroft to delay the Oklahoma City bomber's execution.

The FBI blamed the problem on glitches with computers and record keeping. Other controversies, such as the arrest of veteran FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Hanssen in February for allegedly spying for Moscow for 15 years, and the botched investigation last year of former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, have dogged the FBI in recent years.

And yesterday, an FBI agent who had access to informant identities and witness lists was charged with selling classified files to organized crime figures and others under investigation. James J. Hill was arrested Friday in Las Vegas after allegedly faxing classified information drawn from computer files to a private investigator in New York.

Hill, a security analyst in the FBI's Las Vegas office, was paid $25,000 for files from 1999 until last week, according to a complaint filed by the bureau in federal court in New York.

Hill's attorney, Barry Levinson, said another former agent used Hill to obtain the files and sell them. "My guy is the fall guy," he said.

Senators who attended a Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the FBI agreed that minimizing the number of FBI slip-ups would increase public confidence in the agency and in the government as a whole. People "think if there were mistakes on high-profile cases, where there should have been extra care, what is going on with the lower-profile cases?" Schumer said.

Schumer and Hatch said they will introduce a bill to create a commission of non-governmental experts to look at the FBI and recommend ways to prevent mishaps.

Investigations of the FBI already are being conducted by the Justice Department's inspector general and by an independent panel of experts headed by former FBI and CIA Director William Webster. "We've had what we call a 500-year flood, but we'll learn from it," Webster said.

Ashcroft asked that the results of these investigations be submitted to his committee by November.

Experts who have participated in previous FBI reviews complained that the agency is uncooperative with outsiders.

Former Sen. John Danforth, who investigated the FBI's 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, said while the FBI didn't commit any "bad acts," some agents were not cooperative with his investigation.

Copyright © Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Wife rejects FBI portrayal of her accused husband
June 22, 2001
By Ryan Oliver
Las Vegas Review Journal

A week after her husband's arrest, Patty Hill still does not recognize him as the man alleged to have pilfered FBI secret files and sold them to a middleman working with some of the nation's most-wanted criminals.

James J. Hill, she said, is a decorated airman with 20 years of military service, including time in Vietnam.

He went on to spend 10 years as a support employee with the FBI's Las Vegas field office.

When a neighborhood boy was suffering from cancer, it was her husband who organized a fund-raiser, she said.

"He was always a proud person to be employed by the FBI," she told the Review-Journal on Thursday. "He thought it was a wonderful organization."

But she said the couple's faith in the FBI has been rattled by accusations she cannot bring herself to believe.

James was arrested last week as he left work at the FBI building in Las Vegas on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and theft of government property.

He had used his position as a communications security manager to fax hundreds of classified documents to a private investigator over a 19-month period in exchange for $25,000, according to the FBI.

That private investigator, unidentified in an FBI complaint filed in U.S. District Court, went on to sell the documents to the mafia and other criminal targets. The documents specifically pertained to organized crime, white collar crime and international alien smuggling, the complaint said.

The private investigator was arrested on Long Island, N.Y., shortly after selling classified documents for $4,000 to a man under federal indictment, the complaint said.

The investigator cooperated with FBI agents and said he bought the documents from James Hill, the complaint said.

Hill was arrested the following day, and speaking through his attorney, Hill has since named Las Vegas private investigator and former FBI agent Michael Levin as the man who turned him in.

The FBI will not confirm whether Levin is the informant, and Levin has not returned phone messages left at his office by the Review-Journal.

Patty Hill said she last talked to her husband on Wednesday, and he was in tears.

"He was so upset," she said. "He's been devastated by this. He doesn't understand why it's happening."

Patty said that along with being a patriot with 30 years of government service, her husband of 15 years was heavily involved in his community.

"He went to middle schools as part of the bureau and would do a little fingerprint demonstration," she said.

He also put together a neighborhood garage sale and solicited donations to raise cash for a boy diagnosed with cancer. The boy was being treated in California and the parents needed money to keep visiting him, Patty said.

"That's the kind of man he is," she said.

Asked if she ever suspected her husband of illegal activity, Patty replied, "Never."

She also said she did not know of any unexplained income being added to the family budget.

James Hill's attorney, Barry Levinson, said he believes others at the FBI office are responsible for faxing secret documents, and that his client is the bureau's fall guy.

The FBI is not commenting on Levinson's allegations.

Hill is being held without bail at the North Las Vegas Detention Center. U.S. Magistrate Lawrence Leavitt on Wednesday ordered Hill be transferred to New York, where the case will be prosecuted.

Patty doesn't know how she'll remain in contact with her husband when he's moved.

"It's going to be awful," she said. "We're always in constant companionship with each other. Jim would call me every day from work."

Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Rethinking the FBI: Alan Bock deems dismantling discredited department a possibility
June 22, 2001
By Alan Bock
FreeRepublic.com

Even as the speculators narrow down the potential candidates to replace Louis Freeh as director of the FBI, San Francisco U.S. Attorney Robert S. Mueller III seems to be the most prominent finalist, though former deputy Attorney General George Terwilliger III and New York federal judge Sterling Johnson have also been mentioned. Inasmuch as none of the candidates seems qualified to deal with the agency's current problems, perhaps they are seen as placeholders while the role and functions of the FBI are reconsidered and thought through afresh.

One may hope. But it's more likely the new chief will simply be asked to muddle through and the government will hope against hope no new scandals emerge and the memory of the last few years will eventually fade. Unless the agency is thoroughly reassessed, however, the scandals and embarrassments are likely to keep on comin'.

My retired law enforcement friend, Mr. Anonymous, says that the integrity those in charge of appointments seem to be looking for is essential, but what's really needed in that position is administrative experience in a large law enforcement agency. The FBI, from an operational perspective, he says, needs at least two solid levels of supervision instead of little cliques doing it their way. That means the top guy must know how to make such a system work, including how to avoid being snowed by entrenched upper-level officials. Working as a federal attorney, or even in the Justice Department, might not equip somebody with the tools, the knowledge, the instincts and the cojones to cut through the crap.

He thinks an outsider wouldn't be a bad choice. Almost anybody who has come up through the FBI ranks will inevitably have some favorites – remember how Louis Freeh, when he started, made the huge mistake of promoting his friend Larry Potts after Potts had been deeply involved in the Ruby Ridge debacle. And since one of the most important tasks will be to get rid of deadwood that has become implanted as the organization has grown too quickly to be properly managed, an outsider without too many personal ties might be the only candidate likely to be able to accomplish real change.

My friend thinks that an endorsement of Robert Mueller by California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer amounts to a kiss of death, even if it is a pro forma matter of political politeness. He does say that having worked the homicide division in the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington, D.C., was probably good experience – although as a gumshoe, he hasn't been especially impressed with the kind of work federal prosecutors around the country have done in recent years. And he doesn't think U.S. Attorneys get any of the kind of management training and experience it will take to whip the FBI back into shape.

Those might be details. In light of hearings in the Senate, convened by Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, a skilled and able politician and a thoroughly partisan Democrat, a down-to-the roots reassessment of the FBI just might coincide with appointing a new director. Any such assessment – Sens. Hatch and Schumer say they will introduce a bill to create a panel of non-governmental experts to look at the FBI – should include at least a discussion of the option that the federal government doesn't really need a bureau of investigation or a national law enforcement agency at all.

Short of outright abolition, however, almost all the retired cops and criminologists I talk to say the FBI has simply grown too quickly and in a too disorganized and unaccountable way to be effective any more – it's "overgrown, overextended and underqualified" as one told me. The FBI needs to cut the PR crap and the intensive involvement in essentially local matters and concentrate on what it used to be able to do well – espionage, crimes with a clear interstate aspect and clear national significance and maybe some bank robberies. It would be intelligent to pull away from drug law enforcement cases – J. Edgar Hoover, whatever his faults, understood the huge potential for corruption and demoralization in that cesspool.

Given that the FBI has grown too quickly for its own good, that it still has a culture of secrecy and cover-up, that its supervision has been about on a par with its crime lab work, it is hardly surprising that new scandals keep emerging. The latest, of course, was the FBI analyst arrested in Las Vegas, accused of selling classified files and other information to the mafia and other targets of criminal investigations.

It may be even less surprising that the lawyer for James Hill, the accused FBI agent, is pointing the finger at another retired FBI agent as the real bad guy. Lawyer Barry Levinson says Mike Levin, now a private investigator bothered Hill and others for classified files and other information – maybe for clients, maybe for federal investigators. Whatever tangled tales emerge, the indications are that the Las Vegas office of the FBI didn't exactly specialize in clear lines of accountability and communication.

All this comes on top of the previous scandals revolving around information incompetently assembled and released during the Oklahoma City bombing investigation – with much more embarrassing revelations yet to come. Despite former Sen. Danforth's whitewash, more revelations about FBI misdeeds at Waco will come out some day. The FBI crime lab is a scandal. The Robert Hanssen spy case has been embarrassing enough and more embarrassments are sure to come.

The FBI is far from the only government agency that has grown too quickly, too unaccountably and too secretively in recent years. But it is one of the most important since, at one time, it held the respect of most Americans and is now on the verge of being a national laughingstock. Far from understanding the scope of problems arising from over-expansion, Louis Freeh has made the key "accomplishment" of his tenure the internationalization of the FBI, opening offices in Moscow, Warsaw and elsewhere.

Talking about rising to the level of total incompetence!

And to be reasonably fair to the agency, Congress has not done an adequate job of overseeing the agency. Recent hearings and proposals for independent assessment might improve the situation, but don't count on it.

It seems unlikely that downsizing suggestions will be taken seriously – a recent commission report recommended folding the DEA into the FBI, which would have made it even larger and more unwieldy. But reducing the scope of the FBI's mission should at least be on the table.

One way to start might be to confine the agency to investigating crimes that have a clear, unambiguous interstate component. Another might be to take the word "investigation" more seriously and reduce the field operational aspect.

Tim Lynch of the Cato Institute (whose report on Danforth's Waco whitewash is simply devastating) told me it might be interesting to think about folding all the federal law enforcement agencies – about 70 federal outfits now have people who are authorized to carry weapons and make arrests – into one agency and then downsizing as the missions are consolidated. It's an interesting notion, though I fear the promised consolidation and downsizing simply wouldn't happen and the result could be an even more unaccountable federal law enforcement establishment.

In thinking through the FBI's problems, it is important to keep the option of abolition at least lurking in the background. Aside from a few very specialized outfits operating on federal properties, we didn't have a national law enforcement agency until the early part of the last century. It is questionable whether such an outfit fits into the constitutional scheme the founders envisioned. And it might be that the possibility of abolition is the only way to get the FBI's attention sufficiently to induce genuine reform.

Copyright © Free Repulic, LLC

FBI suspect Hill held in isolation
June 25, 2001
By Jeff German
Las Vegas Sun

FBI security analyst James J. Hill, facing charges of selling top-secret investigative information, is in federal protective custody at the North Las Vegas Detention Center.

"He's there as a precaution because he's in the employment of a federal agency," a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service said this morning. "Other prisoners might assault him if they find out where he works."

Hill is being kept in his own cell away from the general inmate population, the spokesman said.

The isolation also is needed, the spokesman said, because of Hill's knowledge of classified FBI information.

The 51-year-old Hill, who has worked for the FBI since 1991, reportedly had access to national security and electronic surveillance information, as well as confidential informants and witnesses data stored in the bureau's national computer system.

"I have no idea why he's in protective custody, unless they're worried about security secrets," Hill's lawyer, Barry Levinson, said this morning.

Levinson said he expected his client would be transferred this week to New York to face criminal charges in the alleged theft of the FBI information.

Federal prosecutors in New York are preparing to indict Hill on theft charges and drop a six-page complaint filed against him last week, Levinson said.

By indicting Hill, prosecutors won't have to hold a public preliminary hearing on the complaint and publicly disclose information about the sensitive investigation that has attracted the interest of Congress and the national media.

Hill was arrested on the complaint at the Las Vegas FBI office on June 14 after he allegedly provided classified information to private investigator Mike Levin, a former FBI agent cooperating in the probe.

Levin, who has not returned phone calls, reportedly told FBI agents in New York that he had paid Hill $25,000 since November 1999 for confidential FBI documents relating to criminal cases and then passed on the documents to organized crime members and other FBI targets.

Hill, through Levinson, has denied any wrongdoing and contends others close to Levin at the Las Vegas FBI office may have leaked case files to the former agent.

Levinson said he saw Hill at the detention center on Friday, and he appeared in good spirits.

Hill, he said, still wants to help the FBI find others who may have provided Levin with documents.

Hill's wife, Patty, also saw him twice over the weekend, but reportedly told friends the stress of his arrest made him look as though he had aged 10 years.

In an interview with the Sun last week, Patty Hill said she was convinced that her husband was incapable of doing the things alleged in the New York complaint.

She professed her love for Hill and called him a "regular guy" whose kindness was appreciated by his neighbors.

Copyright © Las Vegas Sun

Las Vegas FBI suspect arraigned in New York
July 13, 2001
By Jeff German
Las Vegas Sun

James J. Hill, the Las Vegas FBI security analyst charged in the bureau's secrets-for-sale scandal, was arraigned today on federal charges in Long Island, N.Y.

The 51-year-old Hill, who has worked for the FBI since 1991, has been in federal custody on no bond since his June 14 arrest in Las Vegas.

An FBI complaint in New York charged him with selling confidential investigative information to Las Vegas private detective Mike Levin, a former FBI agent now cooperating in the probe into leaks at the local field office.

Hill's Las Vegas lawyer, Barry Levinson, said Thursday he has had preliminary talks with the government that could result in Hill's cooperation in the investigation, which is being spearheaded by the FBI in New York.

Levinson said he has made an offer of possible evidence Hill could provide FBI agents, but the attorney declined to discuss the offer.

"They want to talk to him," said Levinson, who previously has suggested others within the Las Vegas field office may have provided Levin with classified documents. "We're willing to cooperate in anyway we can to help out the FBI."

Levinson said he has retained well-known New York attorney Benjamin Brafman to serve as co-counsel in New York.

Brafman, listed as one of the top 10 trial lawyers in the country in the latest edition of the National Law Journal, helped obtain an acquittal March 16 for Sean "Puffy" Combs in the rap artist's well-publicized gun possession trial. Brafman teamed with celebrity lawyer Johnnie Cochran in that case.

The Law Journal said the 52-year-old Brafman has won about 80 percent of his cases at trial in a "jurisdiction noted for the success of prosecutors."

Mark Baker, an associate of Brafman's, represented Hill at today's arraignment, which was set for noon New York time.

Baker said in a telephone interview from New York that another hearing for a status check in the case was set for next month and that defense lawyers plan to meet with prosecutors in the meantime.

Lawyers also expect to file a motion seeking Hill's release on bail.

Levin, 36, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and theft charges June 25, is said to be in 24-hour protective custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he is being debriefed by FBI agents. His sentencing is scheduled for September.

Levin, known for his flashy lifestyle, has told FBI agents that he bought top-secret investigative information from Hill and others in law enforcement and then earned $100,000 selling the information to criminal targets, which included organized crime members.

The new Porsche Levin bought just weeks before his arrest now has been repossessed, sources close to the jailed private detective said.

Levin, who has a wife and two small children here, is reluctant to return to Las Vegas because of the negative fallout over his arrest and cooperation with the government, the sources said.

Hill, who is facing theft and obstruction of justice charges in New York, reportedly had access to national security and electronic surveillance information as well as confidential informants and witnesses data stored in the FBI's computer system.

Copyright © Las Vegas Sun

Wrongful death lawsuit filed in high school girl's slaying
November 08, 2001
By Ryan Oliver
Las Vegas Review Journal

Two people charged in the rape and murder of a Western High School sophomore are named as defendants in a lawsuit the victim's family has filed in Las Vegas.

The wrongful death lawsuit, which was filed in District Court on Tuesday, seeks damages from Michael Thornton, 45, and Janeen Snyder, 21.

"The alleged killers who snuffed out the life of Michelle (Curran) will pay for the family's pain and suffering," said Las Vegas attorney Barry Levinson. "Justice will be served one way or another."

Thornton and Snyder are awaiting a murder trial in San Bernardino, Calif. They could face the death penalty if convicted.

Thornton and Snyder were arrested April 17 by deputies when they were seen breaking into a horse shed in Rubidoux, Calif. Curran's body was found on the property five days later, stuffed in a horse trailer with a gunshot wound to the head.

Thornton, a licensed cosmetologist, is the owner of the Fixx Family Hair Salon, a chain of six hair salons in Southern California.

Levinson said he is optimistic he'll be able to recover some money for the Curran family.

"We did an asset search and this guy has assets all over the place," Levinson said.

Levinson said he was approached by Curran's mother, Candy, more than two weeks ago about a possible lawsuit.

"It's to help the family out," he said. "The mother's living with the grandmother. It's not a good situation."

Proceedings in the civil suit will probably be delayed until the completion of the criminal trial, Levinson said. But the verdict of that case won't have any bearing on the success of the civil lawsuit, he said.

"It doesn't matter whether they're convicted or not," Levinson said. "It's like the O.J. (Simpson) case. It's a totally different standard of evidence."

Prosecutors in a criminal case must prove a defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The plaintiff in a civil suit must meet a lower evidentiary burden.

Thornton's attorney, Carl Johnson, has said that his client is innocent.

Curran was reported missing to Las Vegas police on April 5. Prosecutors allege Thornton and Snyder picked her up on the road offering a ride to Southern California.

Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Las Vegas crowd hears status of case against fraud suspect
November 18, 2001
Las Vegas Sun

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Clark County prosecutors want to give back millions of dollars to hundreds of Las Vegas residents who say they were bilked by fraud suspect Franklyn "Frankie" Perry.

In a motion set to be heard this week by District Judge Mark Denton, the Clark County district attorney's office is seeking to intervene in the investors' civil lawsuit and transfer into the court system the $22.1 million Las Vegas police seized from Perry's home in July.

"We want to see that every penny that was taken goes to the people who deserve it," Assistant District Attorney Michael Davidson told the crowd of investors that gathered for a case status report Saturday at The Orleans hotel-casino, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Sunday.

Perry, 61, is jailed on sexual assault and child pornography charges.

He also is accused of using a pyramid scheme to bilk investors out of millions of dollars, but prosecutors have not filed any charges related to those allegations.

Investors said they were promised, for a minimum $10,000 investment, a return of anywhere from 60 to 100 percent on their money within four months.

Perry - who was convicted of orchestrating a similar pyramid scheme in 1985 - said he was in the business of loaning cash to credit-starved high rollers.

Las Vegas police detectives have collected information from about 1,000 victims. Police believe Perry collected as much as $53 million from investors.

Earlier this month, Perry's attorney Barry Levinson filed a lawsuit against Las Vegas police that seeks to recover the money and assets police seized from Perry's home July 17.

"We are going to oppose any motion by Mr. Perry to take possession of this money," Davidson said.

A separate motion by the district attorney's office pending in District Court would allow the seized cash to be invested to earn interest that could generate additional money to pay back investors and fund attorney's fees.

And a Las Vegas law firm has filed to make the civil lawsuit filed in the case a class action lawsuit in which the firm would represent all of Perry's investors.

Perry is being held without bail on multiple sexual assault and pornography charges involving a 12-year-old victim. His trial on those charges is scheduled to begin April 8.

Copyright © Las Vegas Sun

Cop beat handcuffed man at casino
December 31, 2001
By Keith Paul
Las Vegas Sun

A Metro Police officer repeatedly punched a handcuffed man inside a downtown hotel-casino, breaking a vertebra in the man's neck as the incident was captured on the hotel's security cameras.

The videotape from the Las Vegas Club shows an officer straddling 33-year-old Frankie Davis, who was lying handcuffed, face-down on the floor. As security officers watched, the Metro officer struck Davis several times in the head and face.

"There is no question this happened. It is on videotape," said Barry Levinson, Davis' attorney. "There is no reason for this. He was in handcuffs the whole time."

Officer David D. Miller and Sgt. Leonard Marshall, Miller's supervisor, were relieved of duty with pay this weekend pending the outcome of internal investigations, Undersheriff Richard Winget said.

The beating occurred Nov. 7, but Metro Police internal investigations didn't learn of it until recently as Marshall, who knew of the incident, didn't inform superiors, officials said. Miller is being investigated regarding use of force and Marshall is facing an investigation into neglect of duty.

"These are serious allegations, and we are taking them very seriously," Winget said. "If the allegations prove to be accurate, the officer and the supervisor will face very serious discipline."
Levinson said he'll file a federal lawsuit against Miller, Metro Police and the Las Vegas Club this week, and he expects the Clark County district attorney's office to consider criminal charges as well.

The Las Vegas Club referred all questions to Metro. Miller and Marshall could not be reached for comment.

Davis remains in a metal halo keeping his neck stable and will require surgery, his attorney said. He has a court appearance Friday for the misdemeanor trespassing charge on which he was arrested in the Las Vegas Club.

After Davis' arrest, he was taken to the Las Vegas jail, where he complained of pain. Jail officials took him for medical treatment and investigated the injury. The city investigation led to the Las Vegas Club and the videotape, which was turned over to Metro Police earlier this month.

The videotape, viewed by the Sun, shows Davis handcuffed in the hotel's security office. He can be heard complaining of being sucker punched by hotel security staff and at one point a security officer confronts him. Davis can be heard cursing at the man and then spitting at him. Davis is then pushed back into a wall and settles into a chair against a wall.

Miller, 26, an officer since January 2000, is seen on the videotape coming into the office and stands Davis up, pats him down and checks his pockets.

Davis starts to move side to side, and Miller holds on to the handcuff preventing Davis from moving. Davis appears to struggle with Miller. Then Davis is taken out of the office by Miller. The videotape lapses for about 10 to 15 seconds and picks up on the pair out in the hallway.
Davis is face down on the floor with Miller kneeling over him. Miller's hand can be seen raised up several times balled up in a fist and coming down on Miller's head. There are three or four Las Vegas Club security guards standing around watching.

"Why were those security guards just standing around watching? They should have done something," Levinson said. "My client was completely helpless."

At one point, Miller is seen pulling the right side of Davis' body up. As Davis' head raises, Miller is seen on the videotape hitting Davis again in the face and letting go of him. Davis then falls limply back to the ground.

"No matter what he says, there is no reason for him to be punched in the face and have his neck broken," Levinson said. "He was just on the ground and dazed from the pain. He was no danger to the officer. He was handcuffed."

Davis was taken to University Medical Center by jail officials and was treated and fitted with a neck stabilizer.

Davis, who was working as a day laborer, has been unable to work since. He is living in a low-end downtown motel on welfare, Levinson said. Police records show Davis had not been arrested by Metro officers in the past.

Davis did serve time, however, in a New York prison for a drug-related conviction. He did not register as a convicted felon with Metro as required. Davis was unavailable for comment this weekend.

Metro Police officials learned of the incident from a Dec. 13 letter from the city that included a copy of the video, Winget said.

On the night of the incident, Marshall, an officer since August 1994 who was recently promoted to sergeant, apparently went to the Las Vegas Club and got a copy of the tape showing Miller hitting Davis but did not inform his superior officers as required, Winget said.

"It is not up to an officer's supervisor to determine who investigates alleged misconduct. Internal Affairs decides who does the investigation," Winget said. "Internal Affairs and the chain of command should have been notified, and they were not."

According to the department's disciplinary guidelines, punishment for inappropriate use of force for the first offense is a written reprimand or a minor suspension -- eight to 40 hours. The punishment for gross inappropriate use of force, however, is firing on the first offense.

Metro faced a similar case in 1995, when three officers were caught on videotape in the Fremont hotel-casino security office roughing up a suspect. Former Sgt. James Campbell was seen on the videotape watching as former Officer Rob Phelan hit a theft suspect in the chest and hauled him into another room. While there is no video from the other room, audio recordings captured former Officer Brian Nicholson threatening to sodomize the man with his baton.

The three were convicted of oppression under the color of law in 1996, but that verdict was thrown out because of a tainted juror. Phelan later pleaded to misdemeanor counts of battery and assault, and Campbell and Nicholson pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor of conspiracy to assault with a deadly weapon. The plea bargain with prosecutors called for no jail time, but a Clark County District Court judge sentenced them to jail.

Copyright © Las Vegas Sun

Las Vegas police officers suspended over beating allegation
December 31, 2001
Las Vegas Sun

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Las Vegas police officer and his supervisor have been suspended with pay after the officer was accused of punching a handcuffed man inside a downtown hotel-casino.

Officer David D. Miller and Sgt. Leonard Marshall were relieved of duty during the weekend pending the outcome of internal investigations, Undersheriff Richard Winget said.

Miller is accused of straddling 33-year-old Frankie Davis and striking him several times in the head and face while he was handcuffed, face-down on the floor of the Las Vegas Club hotel-casino.

Davis' lawyer, Barry Levinson, said the incident was caught on casino's surveillance videotape.

The alleged beating occurred Nov. 7, but Las Vegas police internal investigators didn't learn of it until mid-December, officials told the Las Vegas Sun.

Miller, 26, an officer since January 2000, is being investigated regarding use of force and Marshall is facing an investigation into neglect of duty, Winget said.

"These are serious allegations, and we are taking them very seriously," he said. "If the allegations prove to be accurate, the officer and the supervisor will face very serious discipline."

Davis has a court appearance Friday for the misdemeanor trespassing charge on which he was arrested in the Las Vegas Club.

Police officials learned of the incident in a Dec. 13 letter from the city that included a copy of the video, Winget said.

According to the department's disciplinary guidelines, punishment for inappropriate use of force for the first offense is a written reprimand or a minor suspension - eight to 40 hours.

The punishment for gross inappropriate use of force is firing on the first offense.

Copyright © Las Vegas Sun