Ex-guard: Frontier monitored rooms

By Jeff German

Thursday, Jan. 9, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Frontier hotel-casino officials planted hidden cameras and microphones in several guest rooms to monitor suspected Culinary Union sympathizers, a former security officer alleges.

Bill Uhouse -- the latest in a growing list of ex-Frontier employees blowing the whistle on widespread spying at the Strip resort -- said in a SUN interview that he saw the recording devices installed in about five rooms on an upper-level floor of the 16-story hotel.

A 43-year-old former Frontier security supervisor, Uhouse said he was asked to stand guard outside the rooms while the devices were planted, allegedly under orders from Frontier co-owner John Elardi.

Uhouse said Frontier executives, concerned the striking union might be trying to infiltrate the hotel to gather intelligence, wanted to be able to steer the operatives to rooms where they could be watched.

Unfriendly hotel guests and employees were among those spied on in the rooms, Uhouse alleged.

Sometimes, videotapes of people in the rooms were passed among security officers for their viewing pleasure, he said.

Uhouse, who worked at the Frontier from 1989 until he was forced to leave in 1993, also shed light on other surreptitious activities at the Frontier.

He said he saw the audio recording equipment hotel officials allegedly used to wiretap the resort's own telephones.

The FBI is said to be investigating the wiretapping allegations, first disclosed in a sworn court deposition by the Frontier's ex-personnel manager, John Patton, who had seen the equipment in the hotel's basement.

FBI agents reportedly are looking to interview two former ranking security officers, Mike Klug and Chuck Bukowski, who had access to the equipment.

Uhouse said he stepped forward after reading about the spying allegations first disclosed three weeks ago in a SUN interview with Wayne Legare, the former head of a Frontier spy squad that kept tabs on striking Culinary Union workers 24 hours a day.

Both men complimented the professionalism of each other.

Uhouse, who said he served as Legare's supervisor, explained that Legare was good at gathering intelligence and never lied to him about his activities.

Legare, now a nondenominational minister who said he stepped forward to clear a guilty conscience, described Uhouse as a competent security officer. Other former Frontier employees interviewed by the SUN supported Legare's assessment of Uhouse.

Uhouse, meanwhile, said the wiretapping equipment was first installed in the hotel's main telephone room in the basement, but later moved to an auxiliary room on the 16th floor after employees became suspicious.

He said three reel-to-reel recorders, each capable of secretly monitoring 21 lines, were in place.

Several times, Uhouse said, he was asked to stand guard outside the phone rooms while technicians worked on the recorders.

Uhouse said a commercial recording device once was installed under Klug's desk and attached to his phone with his knowledge. Klug was chief of security at the time.

Frontier General Manager Tom Elardi often used the phone while the recorder was in operation, Uhouse said.

Elardi has denied wrongdoing but refused to respond to the majority of the allegations raised by the former employees.

John Elardi has never returned a phone call, and Klug could not be reached for comment.

Both Elardis did not return phone calls Wednesday.

Uhouse, meanwhile, said that at one point early in the five-year Culinary strike, he and other security officers found bugs in the hotel's security briefing room and the casino manager's office. Devices were discovered in the ceiling and under desks, he said.

"The entire family was nuts," Uhouse said. "They were paranoid of everything."

Once, Uhouse added, John Elardi's chief electronics expert, John Horton, who allegedly was responsible for installing many of the devices, did a sweep of the executive offices occupied by Frontier majority owner Margaret Elardi and others and found bugs that he had not planted.

"(John Elardi) was hot about that," Uhouse said. "You could see the blood rush to his face."

Uhouse said he knew that some of the things going on at the Frontier weren't right and that he thought many times about leaving. But he said he stayed on as long as he could because the job paid well and it was difficult finding good security positions on the Strip.

"When it got to the point that I couldn't take it anymore, that's when I left," he said.

Ultimately, Uhouse said, he was forced to resign after falling out of favor with the Elardis.

Uhouse confirmed accounts from other ex-employees that the atmosphere at the Frontier resembled a war zone because of the strike.

Security officers were given voice-activated micro-cassette recorders every time they engaged in conversations with strikers on the picket line, he said. The idea was to entrap the strikers into saying something that could be used against them in court.

Uhouse confirmed Legare's claim that Tom Elardi himself concealed a small radio receiver in a pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket when engaging in conversations with pickets. The conversations would be transmitted back to the hotel, Uhouse said.

Frontier officials sought to invite known "rabble-rousers," such as Hells Angels and professional hockey players, to the hotel with the hopes that they would engage in altercations with the strikers that could be videotaped, Uhouse said.

Uhouse recalled the Hells Angels coming to the hotel once, but he said they behaved themselves.

Uhouse also confirmed many of the dirty tricks other whistleblowers have alleged were played on the strikers -- things like spraying them with a large water gun, stealing their signs and intercepting their hand-held radio frequencies.

"Everybody was told and thought it was their duty to protect the casino at all cost," Uhouse said.

Uhouse said he made several "garbage runs" from the hotel to the Culinary Union hall looking for discarded documents that could be of value to the Frontier.

Though Uhouse said he never found any, Legare has indicated officers once retrieved key union documents that shed light on their strike strategy.

Security officers also obtained mugshots of two dozen Culinary officials from Metro's intelligence unit, Uhouse said. The photos were used by the Frontier to compile dossiers on the union leaders.

Frontier officers took their war with the union outside the the hotel's property on some occasions, Uhouse said.

Security officers, he explained, were instructed to engage pickets in altercations whenever they ran into them away from the Frontier.

Officers also often picked up nails they believed strikers had planted in the hotel's parking and set them down in the Culinary's lot, he said.

In a matter not related to the strike, Uhouse alleged that one of his supervisors once wanted him to participate in a John Elardi-inspired "mission" to "break the fingers" of a Bullhead City, Ariz., dentist who owed the Elardi family money.

But Uhouse said he ultimately was excluded from the scheme and doesn't know if it was ever carried out.

A former police officer, Uhouse said he was asked to "educate" other security officers about writing incident reports with strikers in the most favorable light to the hotel.

Uhouse confirmed another allegation Legare raised that the Frontier spied on Metro officers watching tapes of the picket line in a special viewing room at the resort.

When police would spot the camera in the viewing room and ask if it was running, Frontier security officers were instructed to say no, he said. But in reality, he added, the camera was rolling and the conversations of the police were overheard.

Frontier officials also were told to withhold information damaging to the hotel whenever asked to testify in court, Uhouse said.

Legare has alleged that he and other employees were ordered to lie during court proceedings.

Uhouse said Frontier officials made a point of trying to come up with dirt on police monitoring the strike so it could be used against the department if needed.

One time, Frontier cameras caught a Metro officer apparently having oral sex with a prostitute, he alleged.

Legare has indicated that Frontier cameras captured police beating up someone they had detained outside the nearby Fashion Show Mall.

Uhouse also confirmed a story by other Frontier whistleblowers that hotel executives once tried to set up a computer-linked camera that could capture a fingerprint-like image of employees.

The so-called "aura" camera, designed to help weed out union sympathizers, was taken down after protests from employees.