Thursday, Sept. 25, 1997 | 10:51 a.m.
A district judge won't have to answer questions whether gaming stocks he owns and a scholarship his son received from the Golden Nugget affected his rulings in a Downtown Redevelopment Agency lawsuit.
District Judge Stephen Huffaker also won't have to tell attorneys for the Pappas family whether downtown casino owners tried to influence his decisions, although his attorney said he was willing to do so.
That was the ruling Wednesday by a District Court commissioner as attorneys for the Pappas family tried to determine if the powerful downtown casino owners were trying to muscle favorable decisions.
For four years, the Pappas family has been entrenched in a legal feud over the Downtown Redevelopment Agency's snatching of its property at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Carson Avenue to become part of the new downtown garage.
A court decision returned the corner property to the Pappas family, but the city is still battling for possession of the land that already has part of the tomato red garage built atop it.
A Nevada Supreme Court decision earlier this month rejected an appeal by the city's redevelopment agency because it was premature.
The family opposed the city's use of its eminent domain powers to seize the property because the multi-million dollar garage was to be given by the city of Las Vegas to a group of downtown casino owners.
While the property technically is again owned by the Pappas family, the city still wants it to keep the garage intact.
But the redevelopment agency's California attorney, Mark Wasser, complained that the family is demanding more than fair market value for the property.
The next step is a trial to determine what the city owes for the four years that it has had possession of the property and to compensate the family for having torn down the two-story commercial building that was the source of much of the family's income.
District Judge Don Chairez already ruled the city had violated the family's rights and the redevelopment agency failed to follow the law when it took the property and razed the building on it.
Harry Pappas complained Wednesday that the family has been without the income that the property generated while the case has plodded through the courts.
Pappas family attorney Grant Gerber, of Elko, argued before Discovery Commissioner Tom Biggar that questioning Huffaker would be the quickest way to determine if casino bosses are manipulating the court system.
In the process, Gerber chastised Huffaker for failing to reveal early in the Pappas case that he owned 12,000 shares of Elsinor Corp. stock. Elsinor owns the Four Queens hotel-casino downtown.
Gerber said that Huffaker also did not disclose that his son received an $11,000 college scholarship from the Golden Nugget and was given a summer job at Shadow Creek Golf Course. The Golden Nugget and the golf course are properties controlled by Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn.
Once that became known, Huffaker stepped down from the case and it was reassigned to Chairez.
Although Gerber argued that taking a deposition from Huffaker would speed up the trial process, Biggar decided to grant an order protecting the judge from being required to give a statement.
Biggar noted that the same information can be obtained by taking depositions from the casino owners, although that would be a longer and more costly method.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Donald Haight called Huffaker "a judge of the highest integrity" and said his stock holdings had no effect on his court rulings, which included giving the redevelopment agency the go-ahead for the condemnation proceedings.
Haight said that while Huffaker was ready to answer questions, he advised his client not to do so because of the bad precedent it would set for other judges who occasionally are pursued by unhappy litigants.
He termed the allegations against the judge to be "an unprecedented attack" and "a case of sour grapes."
The case is set to return to Chairez's courtroom on Oct. 20 to set a trial date.
The Pappas property is the last piece under the garage to be resolved.
The city recently settled out of court for millions of dollars with two other landowners who were disputing the eminent domain seizures of their plots on Fremont Street.
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