Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman testified this morning on behalf of Councilman Michael Mack, ending testimony in the two-day ethics trial.
Mack's defense rested after Goodman, the lone witness for Mack, spent about five minutes on the stand in front of Municipal Judge Bert Brown.
Goodman, who said he has known Mack since 1999, was asked about his opinion of Mack's honest and integrity.
"It's good," he said, answering the same when asked about Mack's reputation within the community.
After Goodman testified and both sides said they were finished presenting evidence, Brown said he would spend the weekend reviewing documents in the trial. He scheduled closing arguments for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Goodman was the only witness on the stand today and the only witness for Mack. Six others on the prosecution's witness list -- including City Attorney Brad Jerbic and Councilman Larry Brown -- were not called.
At the start of the hearing this morning, Mack's attorney Richard Wright attempted to have the case thrown out on the grounds that the prosecution failed to prove its case and that the complaint itself was defective. Brown denied the motion.
Wright said he was confident that the councilman would be found not guilty of "willfully" violating the city's ethics codes, saying the prosecution had not proved its case.
Mack was slated to take the stand this morning but Wright said his testimony was not needed because he had already testified in February before the Las Vegas Ethics Review Board.
"There aren't any questions he hasn't answered already," Wright said.
He said Brown would have to decide with a "moral certainty" that Mack was lying when he testified before the Ethics Board that he thought a $60,000 outstanding loan from Courtesy Automotive dealer Joseph Scala had been repaid when he voted four times to postpone and ultimately deny a car dealership application by rival dealer John Staluppi Jr. in June 2001.
Wright said the prosecution had not proved that Mack knew about the loan when he voted.
The prosecution's star witness Hattie Baker, who works at Mack's First Class Pawn & Jewelry Store, testified Thursday that Mack had signed a check to Scala some time between January and March 2001, but Wright countered that the prosecution did not present any evidence including checks or bank records to back up her claims.
Baker said she saw Mack sign a $1,000 check as payment to Scala.
If Baker's claims are true, it would severely damage the councilman, who has maintained he thought the loan had been paid off when he voted in February, March, May, and June of 2001 to postpone and ultimately deny a car dealership application proposed by John Staluppi Jr.
Mack declined comment after the trial.
Special prosecutor John Graves Jr. said the evidence proved Mack knew about the loan, including a letter he wrote June 26, 2001 to Jerbic saying Mack had a potential conflict and asked for the conflict to be reconsidered so he could abstain.
Mack voted June 6 to deny Staluppi. Staluppi's consultants filed an ethics complaint on June 25, 2001.
Graves also said that Mack might have withheld his knowledge of the loan because of Scala's "vicious note," which could have been called any time.
Mack still has payments to make on the loan. He filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2001 listing more than $3 million in debt.
Mack did not disclose the loan until after the fourth vote on the proposed project, June 6, 2001, which landed him before a municipal judge Thursday on charges of "knowingly and willfully" violating the city's ethics code.
In his opening statement Thursday, Graves said it was "inconceivable" that Mack would forget a loan of that size.
He also intends to show that during September 2000 and June 2001, Mack and Scala were in constant contact, making it hard to believe that the councilman could forget the loan.
Much of Thursday was spent on testimony from Mike Bellon, a local consultant who worked for Staluppi as he was scoping out a location for his proposed Nissan dealership in northwest Las Vegas.
Bellon's testimony had nothing to do with the loan, but showed that Mack's enthusiasm for Staluppi's project, proposed on Rancho Road, continued to grow from the fall of 2000 to May of 2001. He urged Bellon to negotiate with Scala, who owned land inside Town Center where all new car dealerships were required to locate, but negotiations were fruitless.
After May 16, during a "roundtable" meeting with Scala, Staluppi, Bellon, a representative from Findlay Automotive, and others, Mack went from an avid supporter to a critic, saying it went against the intent of Town Center.
Still, Bellon said he was confident the dealership would be approved -- even without the votes of Mack and Brown -- after receiving a "wink" from Leni Skaar, Mack's assistant, and a "nod" from the city attorney.
While Graves is attempting to show that the loan was the source of Mack's change of heart, Wright says the councilman simply changed his mind. He also painted Mack as "naive" and eager to please.
"Brand new councilman, naive, probably too candidly expressed his approval for people coming to see him (about projects) ... not yet seasoned enough to be noncommittal,' Wright said. "He admits he was high on the project until he learned about the integrity of Town Center and he simply ended up changing his mind."
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