Las Vegas sports gambler and developer Billy Walters is back in the news and lashing out at possible leaks in his federal insider trading case.
The case focuses on millions of dollars Walters allegedly made using confidential information from a member of the board of Dean Foods of Dallas.
Walters was indicted in May on 10 counts related to stock transactions he made after authorities say he received insider information.
John L. Smith wrote a lengthy article about Walters for Desert Companion magazine.
He says the focus on leaks from Walters' attorneys might be the beginning of a strategy from his legal team to build a case of bias in the precedings, setting Walters up for an appeal should the verdict not go his way.
And the evidence is so strong, Smith says, that the verdict is likely not to go Walters' way.
"There is a lot going against the defendent," Smith said, "So, what they're trying to do is get a little traction and do that there are ways to got about it. They probably dream of getting the evidence against him supressed, which would be a real boon for the defense. It rarely happens, but this is their first step in their attempt to do that."
Danny Tarkanian, though, already had a decision go his way regarding legal services he rendered to a company that set up fake charities that preyed upon senior citizens.
The owner of the companies was sent to prison in 1999, but there was nothing implicating Tarkanian, who acted as a registered agent structuring corporate papers and receiving notifications for the company.
Tarkanian has said that he had nothing to do with the day-to-day operations.
Back in 2009, Tarkanian was awarded $150,000 from the insurance company of Mike Schneider, who was a political opponent of Tarkanian's. Schneider had implicated Tarkanian in the scams.
And Tarkanian said Rosen did the same thing in a commercial her campaign ran in the weeks before the election.
This time he is asking for $8 million on seven counts - three for libel, three for slander and one for emotional distress.
"He's stung from a loss," Smith said, "The loss wasn't a blowout the Cortez Masto-Heck race was. This was a much closer loss. Did campaign ads turn it? I don't know if voters really watch those very closely. Or was it that the Democratic machine really dragged people to the polls in Nevada and made a national news story because of its turnout model."
John L. Smith, commentator
