Game warden to get $100,000 settlement

Barton Tanner filed the lawsuit in 1994, claiming two co-workers retaliated against him after he spoke out on behalf of a man who received a citation.

The retaliation allegedly came in the form of prosecution for trapping a gray fox out of season. Tanner was found innocent of the violation. He then sued claiming wrongful prosecution. A federal jury in February awarded Tanner $330,000.

But the attorney general's office succeeded in getting a new trial after a tape recording was discovered of a conversation between Tanner and agency officials in January 1993 that offered new information about the trapping incident.

After a new trial was ordered by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro in April, a conference was held between the attorney general's office and Tanner, and the $100,000 was accepted to settle the case.

The payment to Tanner, who continues to work as a game warden for the agency, was approved Monday by the Board of Examiners, made up of Gov. Bob Miller, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and Secretary of State Dean Heller.

Del Papa said she believed that agency officials conducted themselves properly in pursuing the illegal trapping charge against Tanner, but that the settlement was in the best interest of the state.

In a separate matter, the board approved the payment of $54,586.36 to former UNLV professor Danny Too, who sued the university for wrongful termination in 1995.

Too claimed he was not reappointed to his position as a kinesiology professor because he failed to support a candidate for dean favored by the school. Too now works as a professor at the State University of New York at Brockport.

A jury awarded the more than $50,000 to Too, and the board approved the payment.

The Board of Examiners also agreed to recommend that the Department of Human Resources be given $150,000 to fund a professional survey to determine the prevalence of problem gambling in Nevada.

The request for funding will be considered Wednesday by the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee.

The study was recommended by a panel created by former Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible earlier this year.

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