Supreme Court questions Elko grand jury report

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court raised questions today about an Elko County grand jury report accusing four state Wildlife Department employees of illegally strong-arming a mining company into paying a $500,000 fee.

The high court, meeting for the first time as a seven-member panel, asked why the grand jury report was issued given the fact that a two-year time frame for filing a charge in the case had already passed.

While a final ruling wasn't issued immediately, it was clear that justices were concerned about the legal authority for the report given its timing.

The grand jury didn't try to indict the state workers, but said in a February 1997 report that they broke a state law by forcing Independence Mining Co. to pay a mitigation fee to expand mining operation on public lands.

Those named in the report included state Wildlife Administrator Willie Molini and employees Larry Barngrover, Duane Erickson and Kenneth Gray.

Chief Justice Bob Rose asked Elko County District Attorney Gary Woodbury whether he thought the idea of an accusatory report without an indictment was a dangerous precedent.

"I do not," Woodbury replied, adding that a grand jury in Nevada has the authority to either indict or file a report known as a presentment.

Asked by Justice Cliff Young what he would have advised the state employees to do if he was defending them, Woodbury said he would have told them to try to clear their names by agreeing to a trial even though the time limit for charges had passed.

"I don't think you'd have a big defense practice," Young quipped, prompting muffled laughter in the courtroom.

Deputy Attorney General Paul Taggart urged the Supreme Court to order that the grand jury report be expunged from the record, labeling the grand jury's accusations preposterous.

Taggart also said the high court should go a step further and tell the grand jury that it overstepped its authority by issuing the report and saying the state workers had broke the law.

Without such an order from the Supreme Court, Taggart said a "fringe element" in Elko County will maintain that the four Wildlife Department employees got off on a technicality.

The attorney general's office appealed to the Supreme Court after a district judge in Elko refused a state motion to expunge the record.

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