Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Taxpayers may have to pick up Bongiovanni’s legal fees

Taxpayers may have to pick up the legal tab for District Judge Gerard Bongiovanni, who is fighting allegations that he took bribes and gifts.

The judge's attorney, Tom Pitaro, said today that the time needed to prepare a defense and his client's medical bills may financially break Bongiovanni.

The judge, whose wife is chronically ill, pleaded not guilty today to a 13-count federal indictment charging him with fixing tickets, releasing inmates on their personal recognizance and other rulings based on favoritism.

Some of those rulings were for members of the La Cosa Nostra organized crime family, the FBI alleges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson said the government has 1,018 90-minute tapes of telephone conversations that FBI agents eavesdropped on for three years.

Pitaro told U.S. Magistrate Robert Johnston that he will review whether Bongiovanni is eligible for federal assistance. At one time, the attorney was part of a panel of lawyers paid a nominal fee to represent defendants who cannot afford counsel.

"If they were full (tapes), they would take someone 38 weeks to listen to those tapes, working 40 hours a week," Pitaro said.

The judge has been temporarily suspended from the bench following his arrest April 17. State law requires a judge to be removed if he is charged with a felony.

Bongiovanni is accused of eight counts of racketeering, three counts of wire fraud, conspiracy and lying to the FBI. He has been released on his own recognizance, or the promise to appear for future hearings.

Racketeering carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. The fraud counts carry five years apiece.

Co-defendant Jeff Kutash, the creator of the casino show "Splash," said he too will fight allegations that he tried to bribe Bongiovanni in a civil case.

Henderson car salesman Paul Dottore, suspected of being the middleman between Kutash and the judge, also entered a not guilty plea.

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