Friday, Aug. 29, 1997 | 9:56 a.m.
Former District Judge Gerard Bongiovanni isn't the only judge that federal informant Paul Dottore claims was on the receiving end of one of his bribes.
Dottore testified Thursday that several years ago he was charged in Henderson with hitting his girlfriend and was taken by a friend to a judge there to get the case resolved.
Dottore, 53, said he took $500 with him but the judge demanded $700 or $750 to dismiss the case. The witness said he had to borrow the excess from his friend, whom he named as Johnny Diamond.
When defense attorney Oscar Goodman asked him to name the Henderson judge, Dottore replied, "Honestly, I don't remember his name."
Henderson Municipal Court records show that Dottore's 1990 battery charge was dismissed before a trial by then-Municipal Judge Jim Jensen, who currently operates a real estate office there.
Attempts to contact Jensen or a spokesperson for the ex-judge Thursday and this morning were not successful.
Dottore was arrested July 8, 1990, on charges of battering Myra Ann Tagliere, and arraigned 10 days later. At a pretrial hearing on Aug. 22, court records indicate the case was dismissed at the request of the city attorney's office.
But the Henderson city attorney's office could find no record of the case in its computer Thursday.
The revelation about Dottore's personal foray into the Henderson justice system was a surprise footnote to his testimony in the federal court trial of show producer Jeff Kutash.
Dottore already had testified that he arranged for Kutash and a string of other defendants and litigants to funnel bribe money through him to Bongiovanni, whose trial is coming up later this year.
Jensen, 62, served nine years as a Henderson Police officer and 22 years as Henderson municipal judge. He ran for a County Commission seat in 1982. He retired from the bench in 1993 to run for mayor of Henderson. He lost to Bob Groesbeck, who declined to seek re-election earlier this year after one term in office.
In 1984, the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission gave Jensen a letter of reprimand after investigating a string of alleged improprieties, including conflict of interest.
According to news reports, the conflict charge involved Jensen presiding over two cases -- one of them a DUI charge -- involving a good friend and another case involving a business partner. His friend was found not guilty of the DUI and had a fine dismissed in the second case. The case against his business partner was dismissed.
In 1987, in an election called "Henderson's most acrimonious ever," challenger Bob Glassburn took out newspaper ads to display photocopies of court records. The records showed DUI cases that had been reduced to lesser, non-alcohol-related offenses. Glassburn contended the "highly questionable" reductions were arranged by Jensen "behind closed doors."
Glassburn, who at the time was a contractor but had been a police detective, was once a close friend and fishing buddy of Jensen's. But during the campaign he lashed out at Jensen, questioning his judicial conduct and charging that, "His power base out here is unreal."
At the time, Jensen said his dismissal of DUI cases was done at the direction of the city attorney's office, but Glassburn charged that Jensen "routinely" dictated to the assistant city attorney how he wanted the cases handled and then settled the cases privately in his chambers. Jensen and City Attorney Shauna Hughes denied Glassburn's charges.
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