Police: No evidence supports accusation

LAS VEGAS - Police said they will recommend that no criminal charges be filed against Republican Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons, a congressman accused of assaulting a cocktail waitress in a parking garage three weeks before Election Day.

The investigation into 32-year-old Chrissy Mazzeo's accusation was completed earlier this week and a case file will be sent Friday to Clark County District Attorney David Roger, police said.

Roger has the final say as to whether the five-term congressman, who beat his Democratic opponent by 4 percentage points despite the scandal, will face charges. Roger has said he will review the file thoroughly before reaching a decision.

The probe, involving 44 interviews and 770 hours, found "no evidence to support the charge of battery," according to a police statement released Thursday.

Mazzeo told police Gibbons had pushed her up against a wall and propositioned her for sex in a parking garage across the street from a restaurant where the two had been drinking with friends.

Gibbons denied the account, saying he merely caught Mazzeo when she tripped.

Mazzeo initially told police she believed the incident was captured by surveillance cameras in the garage.

The surveillance video emerged 12 days after police said they were told the cameras were not recording during the Oct. 13 incident. The video, released to the media by Gibbons' lawyer, did not appear to show Gibbons or Mazzeo.

Critics of the police investigation have cast doubt on the tapes' authenticity and raised questions about its delayed emergence. In the statement, police did not comment on how the video was authenticated but said "video tapes from all possible sources were reviewed."

Gibbons lawyer Don Campbell said the police recommendation vindicates his client, who will take office in January.

"This whole matter was a figment of someone's imagination," Campbell told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Dina Titus, who lost the governor's race to Gibbons, deflected questions about the incident and the police investigation during the campaign.

But two days after the election, she said she believed that Gibbons and his campaign consultant, Sig Rogich, were "so closely connected" with Clark County Sheriff Bill Young that an outside investigator should handle the case.

Rogich also is a political adviser to Young, a Republican who backed Gibbons during the campaign.

Young's department handled the investigation.

Mazzeo's lawyer, Richard Wright, also has questioned the police investigation. He did not return a call for comment on the police recommendation.

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal