In stunning lawsuit, Henderson icon Selma Bartlett demands more than $750,000 from loan to ex-Mayor Jim Gibson

Thursday, May 3, 2012 | 1:04 p.m.

There may be no better known names in Henderson than the Bartlett and Gibson families.

Selma Bartlett is the definition of a community pillar and the Gibsons have produced a legendary legislator and his son, a mayor.

But now, in a lawsuit that will send reverberations across Southern Nevada, Bartlett, now in her mid-80s and a widow, has sued former Mayor Jim Gibson, and his wife, alleging they owe her more than $750,000 from loans she began giving him in 2004. The blistering lawsuit accuses the Gibsons of not making a single principal payment on the final loan while maintaining a luxurious lifestyle. Strangely, too, the loans do not appear on Gibson's financial disclosures as an elected official and candidate for governor.

Bartlett is represented by two former assistant U.S. attorneys, Ruth Cohen and Paul Padda. Gibson is now an executive with the Greenspun Corp. I tried reaching him this morning at the office and on his cell phone with no luck. I will update this post when I do.

The suit is at right.

UPDATE

Just talked to Gibson, who acknowledged the debt and that he needed it to pay off seven figures in obligations from his gubernatorial race -- he took many $10,000 contributions in the primary and had to give back half because he didn't make it to the general -- but said the suit's characterizations of the circumstances are "completely false."

Gibson, who said he was only served Sunday with the suit and needs to hire a litigator, sounded furious as he said the charges are "libelous" and: "I'm not going to allow this falsehood and damaging stuff about my character to be out there."

Gibson chafed at the lawsuit's implication that he took advantage of the elderly Bartlett and that he was "prodding her for money." His rendition of events is that she consistently offered to help him out after the gubernatorial race ended for him and, he had to reimburse contributors and his campaign had gone into debt.

Gibson said that after he lost the 2006 primary to Dina Titus, he "liquidated whatever I could liquidate and then I borrowed, yes, I resorted to borrowing." But while the lawsuit implies he tried to get around prohibitions against putting up his house and a lot in Lake Las Vegas as collateral for a campaign loan, he went directly through Bartlett for a personal loan, Gibson insisted Bartlett suggested that route. "She offered to loan me the money," he said.

As for the loans not appearing on his financial disclosures, Gibson said they did not have to be because they were "secured by real property." But the form's intent is to force candidates and elected officials to disclose all loans except those secured on his personal residence -- and those loans far surpass what he could secure only on his personal residence. Also, Gibson told me he used his residence and a deed of trust for a lot he purchased in Lake Las Vegas as collateral.

So why hasn't he repaid Bartlett? "I would have taken care of this long before this if I had the power to do so," he said.