In The News | Gaming Attorney

MEDIA COVERAGE

Meeting seeking input on UNLV chief draws crowd

By RICHARD LAKE
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

How do you get more than 100 college professors to crowd themselves into a windowless ballroom smack dab in the middle of July?

Ask them who they want their new boss to be.

That’s what happened Tuesday at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas , where the higher education chancellor and the chairman of the system’s governing board talked to professors and staffers about choosing a new president.

The previous president, David Ashley, was removed from his position last week amid criticism that he wasn’t a good communicator and lacked the proper management skills to do the job effectively.

It is Chancellor Dan Klaich’s job to come up with a recommendation to the Board of Regents for an interim president. The full board would then have to approve the selection. Klaich and Board Chairman James Dean Leavitt have said they plan to name an interim president and then launch a search for a permanent replacement for Ashley.

But that’s a plan only, and the two indicated Tuesday that they could adjust it, for example, if a consensus emerges that it would be best to simply hire a permanent president sooner rather than after a yearlong search.

“I think this is an absolutely critical time for UNLV,” Klaich said. He added that he doesn’t want someone in charge who’s going to “tread water,” or be a “chair warmer.”

“The university doesn’t deserve that,” he said.

Some people said Tuesday they’d like to see someone who is already familiar with the university take over — preferably not on a temporary basis.

Professor Robert Woods of the hotel management department pushed for current Provost Neal Smatresk to take over, as did several others. Smatresk, normally the university’s No. 2 official, is serving as acting president already in the wake of Ashley’s removal.

“We need someone who’s up to speed now,” Woods said. “Someone who can make hard decisions now.”

UNLV, like other colleges and universities in the state, is undergoing tough budget cuts. More are expected in the next couple of years. In addition, there’s been lots of what was generally referred to over and over againTuesday as “bad press” for the university in relation to the Ashley situation.

It might be best, several people said, to hire somebody for a couple of years and wait until things calm down before launching a national search for a new leader.

A couple of people pushed for Carol Harter, the president of the university before Ashley took over in 2006, to be hired on an interim basis. Some mentioned Richard Morgan, the former dean of the law school, too. Other names have been floated both publicly and privately by regents and other insiders, but none came up as oftenTuesday as Smatresk’s.

Klaich and Leavitt said the rumored folks aren’t necessarily ahead of anyone else when it comes to who might get a shot at the job.

“Don’t believe everything you hear,” Klaich told the crowd.

There was a general consensus that whoever takes over should value the university’s efforts to expand research, and that this new person be a good communicator, someone who is able to establish solid relationships with alumni, the higher education system, students, faculty and employees.

Klaich and Leavitt will meet with other groups throughout this week. They said they hope to have an interim president named within a few weeks. The search for a permanent president, if it comes to that, could take until next spring.

New medical school is money well-spent for Las Vegas

When Gov. Brian Sandoval put his pen to the jacket covering Senate Bill 514 on Thursday at UNLV, it was the end of a remarkably rapid journey and the start of a brand-new one.

Although the idea of starting a medical school at UNLV has been around for decades, a push in earnest for the project began less than two years ago. Las Vegas Regents James Dean Leavitt and Mark Doubrava sparked that discussion.

“Who’d have thunk that in less than two years, we’d be having a medical school in Las Vegas?” Sandoval asked the two regents at a bill-signing ceremony Thursday at the UNLV student union building.

Indeed, the institutional, financial, sectional and political hurdles were many. But Sandoval understands what many have said for years: In order for Las Vegas to evolve, it needs better health care. And part of that is training doctors right here in town, providing places for them to do their residencies and making sure Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates are sufficient to ensure everyone has access to health care.

“One of the things I talk about all the time is the new Nevada,” Sandoval said. “And part of that new Nevada is investing. And investing so we can have a healthy and educated citizenry, and investing so we have a vibrant and sustainable economy. But that comes at a price, and that’s where the tough politics in this comes in, that’s where the leadership comes in, that’s where courage comes in. That’s where integrity comes in.”

Sandoval singled out the Legislature’s leaders, most of whom were present for the signing: Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson, R-Henderson; Senate Minority Leader Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas; Assembly Majority Leader Paul Anderson, R-Las Vegas; and Assembly Minority Leader Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas.

But there are other lawmakers, those for whom the votes were even tougher. Assembly members such as James Oscarson, R-Pahrump; Speaker John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas; Erv Nelson, R-Las Vegas; and Derek Armstrong, R-Henderson, all of whom will likely face a conservative backlash for voting for the spending and the taxes that will help support it. (Six Assembly members — including three from Southern Nevada — and two state senators voted against the spending bill, and 10 Assembly members and three senators voted against the tax package.)

Sandoval said he met with lawmakers during the session to discuss the stakes. “Everybody has that quiet moment where they reach that place where they’ve got to make a decision where they knew [it] could affect their political futures, but they also know, will change history, will actually change the actual trajectory of a state, of a community, of a university.”

The bill contains $27 million for UNLV’s new medical school, as well as $3 million for the Boyd Law School, $25 million for UNLV’s new hotel college building and $1 million for the International Center for Excellence in Gaming Regulations. “There is no reason why Las Vegas should not have the No. 1 hotel school on planet Earth,” Sandoval said.

University system officials and UNLV employees — who’ve had plenty of reasons to look glum after recent legislative sessions — were all smiles on Thursday. “We don’t get many days like this,” Sandoval said.

“The governor and the people of this state, 50 years from now, after the [bicentennial] are going to look back to this legislative session in 2015, and say, ‘They did it right. They invested, they showed courage and they changed the trajectory of the state forever,’” the governor added.

While it’s impossible to really know precisely what may happen in the next half-century, there’s one thing we know right now: It did take courage and foresight on the part of many leaders to start the process of building a medical school, just as it did back in 1998 when the law school was started from scratch, a gamble no one could argue hasn’t paid off.

And all the work and sacrifice that led to Sandoval putting his pen to that bill jacket Thursday has the potential to help millions of Southern Nevadans into the future. Every person who helped make that happen, in ways large and small, deserves our thanks.

Two doctors, woman sued in fatal crash

By FRANK CURRERI
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Until the moment when Patricia Copening crashed a Dodge Durango into a father of two and killed him, she had received prescriptions entitling her to 5,587 powerful painkilling pills over a one-year period.

Now, the dead man’s family has sued two veteran doctors who may have recommended the drugs for Copening.

Their lawsuit claims that either Dr. Richard M. Groom or Dr. Doyle Stuart Steele, or both, knew about Copening’s ongoing drug problems and still signed off on the prescriptions.

Copening is a co-defendant in the lawsuit, which was filed last week in Clark County District Court by relatives of the late Gregory Sanchez Jr. and Robert Martinez.

Martinez, who survived, and Sanchez were run over in June 2004 by the sport utility vehicle on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 95 near Flamingo Road. Sanchez had pulled over to try and fix a flat tire.

“He was 21 years old,” Stephen Lewis, a lawyer for Sanchez’ relatives, wrote in the lawsuit that alleges wrongful death and negligence. “He leaves behind a young wife, toddler and newborn baby girl.”

Following the wreck, authorities impounded the Durango and seized as evidence dozens of pills and prescription bottles marked “hydrocodone” and “carisoprodol,” according a Nevada Highway Patrol report included in the lawsuit.

Carisoprodol is the medical name for a popular muscle relaxant known as “soma.”

Steele’s name was listed on at least two of the bottles, according to the Highway Patrol.

“The record is clear. Defendant Copening was in possession of 167 pills, all given to (her) by Dr. Steele and/or Dr. Groom,” Lewis said in court papers.

Attorneys representing Groom, Steele and Copening in the civil case wouldn’t comment. Copening has a separate attorney in the criminal case.

Pharmacy records indicate Copening received prescriptions for 3,410 hydrocodone tablets in the year leading up to the crash and 2,177 soma tablets, attorney Lewis wrote in the lawsuit.

When mixed, hydrocodone and soma are known to create feelings of intense euphoria, earning them nicknames of “poor man’s heroin” and “Las Vegas cocktail” among drug addicts and drug enforcers.

Authorities say Copening was driving with a medically suspended driver’s license. They have charged her with involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence of controlled substances and DUI death.

Copening also was charged with DUI substantial bodily injury for serious injuries sustained by Martinez. He had stopped to help Sanchez and suffered head injuries and a broken leg.

A preliminary hearing for Copening’s case is set for November, but the attorney defending her in the criminal case said his client may have been gripped by a seizure during the accident.

The attorney, James Dean Leavitt, said a motorist who witnessed the accident “observed what he believed was her (Copening) having what he believed to be a seizure.”

Leavitt also said Copening had a seizure a couple of years ago that prompted her neurologist at the time to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles that Copening was not fit to drive.

Prior to the accident, however, another physician had examined Copening and determined the driving suspension should be lifted, Leavitt said.

“Patty (Copening) didn’t realize there was a step she had to take which was actually going (to DMV) to get the license,” Leavitt said.

The crash caused professional woes for Groom and especially Steele, his former business partner.

The accident investigation mushroomed into a probe of Steele, an OB-GYN whose office is on West Charleston Boulevard. Las Vegas police, the Nevada Department of Public Safety and the DEA are involved in the investigation.

The state Board of Medical Examiners learned of the multi-agency drug investigation and allegations, which included allegations that Steele had prescribed painkillers for three patients but kept improper records for the cases.

Two weeks ago, the board suspended Steele’s medical license.

A hearing on the allegations is pending, as is another case against Steele on an allegation that he had sex with a patient, said Tony Clark, the board’s executive director.

Copening had worked for Groom at Ob-Gyn Associates for 15 years up to the day of the accident, the lawsuit alleges. The Durango involved in the crash was owned by Groom and insured through Ob-Gyn Associates, Lewis said in the lawsuit.

In responding court papers, Groom said Copening was once a patient of his whom he had treated with prescription medications for migraine headaches, child delivery and postpartum care.

But “based on my memory alone, I do not recall prescribing any hydrocodone or any other narcotic pain medication to Patricia Copening during the calendar years of 2002, 2003, 2004 or 2005,” Groom said in the documents. “I would have to have the chart to be entirely accurate.”

L.J. O’Neale, the Clark County prosecutor handling Copening’s criminal case, wouldn’t comment.

The Highway Patrol also interviewed Copening’s half-sister during the investigation. Tammy Leavitt said Copening said she took some “hydro” and “narco” the night before the collision and said she had suffered migraine headaches since she was 9.

Leavitt said the prescription drugs played no role in the accident. “Our contention is that it was a medical event,” the defense attorney said.

Keith McDonald, executive director of the state’s Board of Pharmacy, said Nevada doctors authorized more than 50 million doses of the opium-based hydrocodone last year, surpassing the per capita national average.

He said prescribing soma and hydrocodone in tandem is uncommon but not unheard of.

But for a patient to use 3,400 hydrocodone tablets in a year, McDonald said, “The person would have to have migraine headaches every day, which would be highly unusual.”

Murder case against boy dismissed

REVIEW-JOURNAL

A 13-year-old charged with murder in North Las Vegas has had his case dismissed by a justice of the peace.

Teenager Jose Escamilla was one of three defendants charged with murder in the slaying of Manuel Mora, who was shot to death in North Las Vegas earlier this year. Authorities said Mora was shot after a confrontation with a group of young men near McCarran Street.

During a preliminary hearing in the courtroom of Justice of the Peace Stephen Dahl last week, Dahl ordered Escamilla’s two co-defendants, Abraham Madrid and Victor Valencia, to stand trial in the case.

But Escamilla’s defense attorney, James Dean Leavitt, said although Escamilla was in a van used in the crime, authorities could not specifically link Escamilla to a conspiracy to commit the murder, prompting Dahl to dismiss the charges against Escamilla.

Man charged in Anthem vandalism to stand trial

BY BRIAN HAYNES

Review-JournalThe man charged with chopping more than 600 trees in the Anthem community of Henderson was orderedTuesday to stand trial, despite his lawyer’s argument that the tree-cutting sprees would be far too much work for one person to carry out.

Douglas Raymond Hoffman, 59, faces 10 counts of malicious destruction of trees on land of another.

Seven of the counts are felonies. The other three are misdemeanors.

Authorities said Hoffman was responsible for a slew of tree-chopping sprees between October 2004 and November 2005 in the southern valley community of Anthem, where he lived. Prosecutors said he first cut down trees because they obscured the view from his house, then carried out the other sprees to create a diversion.

About 617 trees were damaged in the 10 incidents. The trees were worth about $246,000.

Henderson Justice of the Peace Rodney Burr ordered Hoffman to stand trial on the charges after a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

Hoffman’s lawyer, James Dean Leavitt, said his client could not have been responsible for the vandalism. On some nights, more than 100 trees were cut.

“For them to suggest one person did this is ludicrous,” Leavitt said, adding that his client has had a hip replacement and is disabled.

Hoffman was arrested early Nov. 26 after a retired California sheriff’s deputy confronted him and found a saw. The retiree, William Edwards, said he confronted Hoffman after he observed him making a sawing motion next to a tree.

Hoffman was scheduled to appear June 5 for arraignment in District Court.

Chancellor’s annual fishing trip gets high marks

By K.C. HOWARD
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Regent James Dean Leavitt caught the largest of all the salmon bagged this year on the chancellor’s annual fishing trip.

The 32-pounder secured bragging rights for Leavitt, a neophyte angler.

“Just the fact that I can tease Stavros for an entire year is priceless. Because he was shut out both years,” he said, referring to Regent Stavros Anthony.

The trip, which took place July 26-29 on Sonora Island in British Columbia, doubles as a higher education conference and is an annual affair Chancellor Jim Rogers hosts and funds at a cost of more than $4,000 per person.

The trip has been viewed skeptically by some higher education officials as more of a gift than a conference, in part because of the attendance of those outside academia: a few news anchors, former House member Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., and former Regent Doug Hill, who now is working for Rogers’ media empire to name a few.

But those who went came back praising the lofty goals of the trip. The chancellor’s office also is preparing a documentary on the excursion.

The four days that six regents spent with about 80 or so higher education and communication gurus from around the country focused largely on health care, Rogers said.

Rogers, owner of Sunbelt Communications Co., which includes KVBC-TV, Channel 3, wants to develop a health sciences center in Nevada.

At the retreat, the new President of the University of Arizona, Robert Shelton, and University of Southern California Provost Max Nikias were both featured evening speakers. Rogers spoke to both about their medical school programs.

“For me the most important thing that came out of that whole fishing trip was the cooperative effort, the help we can get from other medical schools in telling us where to go. I was so pleased with their openness and willingness to help,” Rogers said.

Two Nevada higher education vice chancellors, the new presidents of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Nevada, Reno, and a health care consultant spent Friday developing plans for the proposed health sciences center, including the creation of a new foundation separate of the UNLV and UNR foundations to help raise money. They also agreed on a managerial hierarchy that splits power evenly between UNLV and UNR.

“We sent in a boat for them but they got so wrapped up into it they never went out,” Rogers said of the group.

Regents were not involved in the center’s planning, which will go before the board’s health sciences committee and then the entire 13-member board for approval.

Regents went on different boats with one or two higher education officials spending the day getting to know their fishing buddies.

“I didn’t realize how helpful it would be to go away and to spend time together talking about those issues,” said Regent Michael Wixom, who flew up a day late because of business.

He fished one day with Rogers and Mike Reed, the new vice chancellor of finance. The next day he went out with UNR provost John Frederick and Cary Groth, the athletics director.

“We spoke a lot about trying to make policies and processes between the two institutions the same,” Wixom said.

“Mike (Reed) and I talked about 100 things,” Rogers said. “You try to find out about someone’s character more than you do about the specific issues they’re going to be involved in.”

Years ago, the conference began as a trip for Rogers’ Sunbelt employees, and Rogers still brings several workers from his various television stations. News 3’s Kendall Tenney attended along with Jim Snyder, a Channel 3 anchor.

Tenney said the trip will not impact his coverage of the chancellor.

“He (Rogers) understands I have a job to do and he might be upset if I didn’t cover him objectively,” he said.

Regent Linda Howard, who is campaigning for public administrator and is leaving the board, said the trip allowed her to exchange ideas with scholars from around the country on ways she might help education from a county position.

She wants to explore the possibility of using a percentage of the value of unclaimed property to give to K-12 education.

She also caught a 29-pound salmon.

No quit in Rogers

Maybe you’re fed up with your boss, or you’re sick of your co-workers or hours or you just think you can do better than the person who runs the company.

Most of us still drudge through our eight-hour-plus shifts like lemmings, marching toward an uncertain retirement, to put food on the table and pay down credit cards or student loans.

But the workaday monotony doesn’t apply to the ultra-rich.

If only Average Joe could utter “I quit” without being hauled into Human Resources for a separation meeting or watching so-called friends begin fighting for the plum hours of a now-vacant position.

Few among us can live without jobs, and despite the frequent frustration that might bring us to the cusp of jumping off the cliff with an “I quit,” we just hang on to the familiar edge of our safety zone.

But the rest of us haven’t built a media empire and don’t go through life with no one to answer to.

Jim Rogers isn’t used to being told no. But after an elected regent questioned one of his appointments, Rogers lashed out to show his independence.

After all, this is the leader of the university system that — when he took the job — still had to rely on some of the decisions made by the Board of Regents.

But once they handed him some of that power — the ability to fire university presidents, for example — Rogers became bigger than those we actually elect to govern the higher education system.

When Rogers lashed out at Regent James Dean Leavitt in a memo, he probably figured he’d find some allies. But board Chairman Bret Whipple came to Leavitt’s defense and had the temerity to suggest that if Rogers couldn’t support his elected board, then he should be the one to resign.

How dare he.

Rogers probably couldn’t accept the possibility that someone would have the audacity to do what he’s done to ex-University of Nevada, Reno President John Lilley and former UNLV boss Carol Harter.

So he took his time and his wealth and went to play elsewhere with a two-word separation memo worthy of men of his stature: “I quit.”

What else would we expect from a man who thought he could run the state but decided he was too good for the political process that decides who gets the seat? Where else would someone who can’t play nicely with others stomp off to but a skybox for an NFL playoff game? He marked the end of his service by taking in the Chargers-Patriots contest in San Diego.

But Rogers is also one of the few people in the state who is so committed to education that he puts his own money where his mouth is.

And so, for once, he thought a little harder about his elaborate two-word memo, offering five words to rescind his hasty resignation.

Part of what makes Rogers successful as a chancellor is his ability to shoot from the hip as an outsider unafraid to call things that aren’t working as he sees them.

When someone gives tens of millions of dollars to educational institutions, he’s not driven by the hope his name will be put on a building.

So perhaps it was the scary “legacy” word that crept into his mind when he ultimately flip-flopped back into his job to the delight of nearly everyone. The little power play could not possibly jeopardize his baby: the health sciences center.

When I talked to Rogers a while back about the possibility of running for governor as an independent, he always talked up the health sciences center idea over anything else.

And despite a purported $100 million commitment for the center in Gov. Jim Gibbons’ budget, Rogers will still have a huge job selling it to a Legislature made even more skeptical by his appointment of unsuccessful Democratic congressional candidate Tessa Hafen as a lobbyist for the project. Legislative Republicans in both houses were already questioning the expense before Hafen got the job and before Rogers quit and then came back.

Rogers has tried to use the chancellor’s job not just as a bully pulpit, but also to bully other elected officials, from those running our local school district to those who sought the governor’s mansion.

He tried to pick the Clark County superintendent of schools, and upon failing, has decided to work with the guy those elected to govern the schools picked.

He tried to back a gubernatorial candidate committed to education, but he’s never really been a shepherd for policy the way he wants to be with the health sciences center.

Perhaps after the legislative session, when the center is on its way to fruition, Rogers will once again decide to leave the chancellor’s job.

But next time, his memo will have to be a bit longer.

“I quit — really.”

Chancellor, regent smooth over their dispute

By LAWRENCE MOWER
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Chancellor Jim Rogers and Regent James Dean Leavitt sat together during a luncheon at McCormick & Schmick’son Tuesday, showing that they have smoothed over a dispute that shook up the higher education community.

“I think that this was a minor fracas,” Rogers said, referring to a clash that led to his temporary resignation. “It’s really a firecracker that turned into an A-bomb.”

Leavitt and Board of Regents Chairman Bret Whipple called for Rogers’ resignation Friday after Rogers sent a memo to Whipple threatening to resign should Leavitt be elected chairman or vice chairman of the board in June.

Leavitt had questioned Rogers’ hiring of former Democratic congressional candidate Tessa Hafen to head up government relations with the University of Nevada Health Sciences Center project. Leavitt questioned whether Hafen was qualified for the post and whether a search would have resulted in a better candidate.

Rogers exploded, sending a letter to Whipple stating Leavitt had a “lust for power” that became worse “every week.”

Leavitt and Rogers met Monday night and worked out their differences as former Clark County Manager Thom Reilly moderated.

University presidents, fearing the conflict would affect the system’s legislative goals, called for a peaceful resolution and for Rogers to return.

Regent Mike Wixom said Tuesday he and other regents wanted to put the incident behind them and move forward.

“From my perspective, the individuals who called for his resignation … are satisfied with (the withdrawal of) his resignation, and I’m ready to move on,” Wixom said.

Executive Vice Chancellor Dan Klaich said regents don’t have to take action to accept Rogers’ retraction because under Nevada System of Higher Education policy, his resignation was withdrawn less than three days after it was issued.

But this issue will be revived when regents address their relationship with the chancellor at the next board meeting Jan. 26.

Whipple placed a discussion item on the agenda after Rogers sent a memo to regents asking them to audit athletic programs in the state, an issue that has historically been left to university presidents.

Hafen’s job seems secure even as a conservative action group continued its calls for regents to re-evaluate her hire.

“I’m very happy with her being here,” Rogers said.

Leavitt, who is chairman of the Health Sciences Center ad hoc committee, said Monday he has “zero” problems with Hafen, and that because the board ceded power to the chancellor to hire system staff, Board of Regents’ approval isn’t required.

“As far as I’m concerned, her position is absolutely secure,” he said.

Man sentenced to probation in slaying

By K.C. HOWARD
REVIEW-JOURNAL

A prosecutor asked District Judge Valorie Vega to sentence Dominic Jones to six to 15 years in prison Tuesday for being an accessory to the murder of a 19-year-old man, but Vega gave Jones five years of probation instead.

“Oh my God,” relatives of the victim, Nathan Fowler, echoed in unison as Vega issued the sentence. They then stormed out of her courtroom.

Before the sentencing, Fowler’s aunt, mother and grandmother had spoken in court of their wish to see Jones, who claimed to be a friend of Fowler’s, sent to prison.

“I heard Nathan’s last words were, ‘Please take me home,'” Fowler’s aunt Samantha Flynn said to Jones. “I hope those words haunt you the rest of your life.”

“You’re a sick human being,” Flynn told the 20-year-old defendant. “I hope you rot in hell.”

Fowler’s mother, Nicola Roundy, told Jones, “You pulled over and let that bastard shoot him.”

Before sentencing him, Vega noted that Jones had made significant improvements in his life during the past year by getting a job and attending school.

“Had you been the shooter, you’d be serving prison time,” Vega told him.

Prosecutor Susan Pate said that the truth will probably never be known about who killed Fowler. Jones and his former co-defendant, Roman Espinoza, gave conflicting stories to authorities.

Pate said both Espinoza and Jones were culpable in Fowler’s death.

Even though Jones had his car detailed the day after the slaying in an attempt to destroy evidence, blood was found on the front and back seats of Jones’ car — and Jones and his then-19-year-old girlfriend, Jessica Landers, had been in the front while Espinoza had been sitting in the back with Fowler, Pate pointed out.

Pate also emphasized Jones’ violent past while asking Vega to give him the maximum sentence.

“He has six prior juvenile arrests. Four of the six are for battery,” Pate said.

In connection with his guilty plea in the Fowler case, Jones also pleaded guilty to a robbery. On April 9, 2006, hours before Fowler was killed, Jones beat a 17-year-old and stole his wallet.

Jones and Landers told authorities they picked up Fowler at a friend’s house later that night. Espinoza was with them.

According to the police report, Jones and Landers said Espinoza asked Jones to stop the car and then told Fowler to get out to talk to him.

Landers told police Espinoza questioned Fowler about stealing from his cousin, and then she heard two shots. Jones got out of the car to see what happened and returned to the car and then they drove away, Landers told police.

Fowler’s body was found at Helena Avenue and Tioga Way, near West Craig Road and North Buffalo Drive. He had been beaten, stabbed and shot twice in the head.

Jones pleaded guilty in June to being an accessory to murder, and a month later, Espinoza, 20, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter. The plea means he neither admitted nor disputed the charge.

Espinoza was sentenced to eight to 20 years in prison.

Espinoza, who changed the story he gave to police several times, said Jones shot and beat Fowler. At his sentencing in October, his lawyer said Jones and his girlfriend “lawyered up” before Espinoza did and that is why Jones was not charged as the shooter, because he agreed to testify against Espinoza.

About 24 hours after the slaying, Jones and Landers went to lawyer James Dean Leavitt’s office, where they gave “candid” accounts of the killing, Leavitt said. Landers, he said, gave a separate and nearly identical version of events to Jones.

Leavitt said Espinoza got Jones and Landers to help him by threatening them.

Jones said in court that his “actions that terrible night were guided by shock and fear.”

“My actions were impulsive, irresponsible and unkind,” Jones told the court as he apologized.

He said he will live every day of his life knowing his friend was shot and killed in front of him.

Pro Bowl scammer convicted

By DAVID KIHARA
REVIEW-JOURNALMitchell Chirchick was accused of swindling hundreds of people out of Pro Bowl travel packages to Hawaii in 2007.

The victims included police officers and firefighters in Denver and a 10-year-old girl in Las Vegas who was awarded a trip through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

On Monday, more than a year after the scam took place, the 40-year-old entered an Alford plea to three theft counts related to the Pro Bowl packages.

He could be sentenced to three to 30 years in prison and will be ordered to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“I sold the packages and did not provide the tickets,” Chirchick said Monday in District Court. Chirchick is in custody at the county jail and appeared in court wearing a prison uniform and shackles.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 7.

In exchange for his plea, the state attorney general’s office agreed to drop seven other counts, including a racketeering charge that would have brought a minimum 20-year sentence if Chirchick were convicted.

Chirchick entered an Alford plea, which means he didn’t admit guilt but acknowledged there was enough evidence to find him guilty if he went to trial.

Prosecutors agreed to the plea so authorities could start giving back about $200,000 confiscated from Chirchick to his victims, said Bob Giunta, senior deputy attorney general in charge of the consumer protection unit. Authorities can’t return the money until a judge sentences Chirchick.

“If we had to wait for a trial, it’s possible this thing would have dragged on for another year,” Giunta said. “We’d like to get the people who lost money reimbursed as quick as possible.”

Chirchick’s attorney, James Dean Leavitt, said Chirchick wants to resolve the matter quickly and hopes to pay back victims.

People from across the county paid Chirchick between $500 and $1,500 for travel packages to the 2007 Pro Bowl in Honolulu. The packages often included air fare, game tickets and hotel rooms, authorities said.

Instead of delivering the packages, Chirchick, through his company CEI Sports Tours, pocketed the money, authorities said. Federal authorities believe losses from the scam totaled about $800,000, according to a federal warrant for his arrest.

Chirchick left hundreds of people without packages to the Pro Bowl, authorities said, including local businessman Roger Sachs, co-owner of Steiner’s - a Nevada Style Pub in Las Vegas.

“He really hurt a lot of people’s lives at the time,” Sachs said. Sachs bought several packages from Chirchick as part of a promotion and estimated he was out $15,000.

“It wasn’t life or death, but it was heinous,” he said.

Chirchick in 2001 and 2002 pleaded guilty to mail fraud in Minnesota and was given supervised probation. In Las Vegas, he was sued on allegations that he bounced checks and didn’t follow through with payment to a bus tour service, court records show.

Sachs said he still remembers the sinking feeling he got in his stomach when he got the news that the packages he thought he paid for weren’t available.

He said he would like to see Chirchick get 10 years behind bars.

But he also understands how it could happen.

“He was a likable guy. He had the gift of gab,” Sachs said. “He seemed trustworthy.”

UNLV stadium site revealed

By RICHARD LAKE
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

A proposed new 40,000-seat domed football stadium at UNLV would sit between the Thomas & Mack Center on campus and Paradise Road, said James Dean Leavitt, chairman of the higher education system’s Board of Regents. If it is ever built, the stadium complex would include a hotel, campus housing, restaurants and retail space, he said. A portion of Swenson Street would be

removed under the proposal, he said.

“It will eventually develop into a town square concept,” Leavitt said.

Craig Cavileer, one of the developers behind the project, confirmed what Leavitt said. But Cavileer said he was not ready to release more details yet. He said he expected to hold a formal news briefing next week.

“We’re really close,” he said.

He wouldn’t discuss a potential price tag or whether public financing will be involved in the proposal. A higher education source said, however, that no UNLV money would be involved.

A spokeswoman for developer Ed Roski, Cavileer’s partner in the deal, declined to comment on specifics of the plan. The spokeswoman said the proposal has not yet been completed. She said she did not want to release details that might be changed in the final proposal.

The plan is scheduled to be presented to the Board of Regents at a special meeting set for Feb. 11. The Board is being asked to enter an exclusive agreement with Roski, owner of Southern California -based Majestic Realty , and Cavileer, president of the Silverton Casino, to develop the stadium.

Roski helped build the Staples Center in Los Angeles and has long been unsuccessful in trying to lure an NFL team to that city. He holds a stake in both the NBA’s L.A. Lakers and the NHL’s L.A. Kings.

Leavitt said the proposal will include the setting up of a special tax district, which would redirect tax revenue from the stadium complex away from local governments to pay off bonds issued to develop the stadium. Such an arrangement would require legislative approval, which is why he scheduled the special Board of Regents meeting so quickly.

He said he did not know details about financing, but he expected that it would cost “millions” just to develop the proposal before building started.

The land is largely vacant or used for parking. Property records show the portions not already part of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus are owned by the Clark County Department of Aviation and two rental car companies that no longer operate businesses there.

“This is very legit,” said higher education Regent Mark Alden, a longtime UNLV booster. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for us.”

The stadium would replace Sam Boyd Stadium, seven miles from campus and originally built in 1971, though it has been refurbished and expanded since then.

The new stadium would house not only UNLV’s football games, but potentially its basketball games and special events, such as the National Finals Rodeo.

UNLV gains 42 acres for future growth and maybe a stadium

The UNLV campus is going to grow by 42 acres and gain enough ground for a potential new football stadium.

The state Board of Regents voted Friday to allow UNLV officials to move ahead with the purchase of the 42-acre parcel between the campus and the Strip for $50 million.

“It’s the biggest (land deal) since the ’60s,” Gerry Bomotti, chief financial officer for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told the Review-Journal after the 13-member panel unanimously approved the land deal.

UNLV officials, led by President Len Jessup, said the land would be developed as either a “campus village” or a stadium site.

Bomotti’s presentation to the regents downplayed the stadium option, saying, “I wouldn’t put money on it.”

Bomotti’s comments were consistent with UNLV’s political strategy of stressing the need for the land at the northeast corner of Tropicana Avenue and Koval Lane across from McCarran International Airport whether a stadium is built or not. Bomotti said UNLV needs room for graduate, clinical outreach and professional programs.

UNLV is acquiring the property from Wells Fargo, which took the site after a proposed development was shelved. “This is historic,” Regent James Dean Leavitt said during the meeting at the UNLV student union. “The time is now.”

UNLV will spend $3.3 million per year for 30 years to pay off the $50 million, plus interest. The deal will close by the end of the month, and UNLV officials will return to the board in March to present a detailed funding plan.

The board may have unanimously endorsed the land deal, but Chairman Rick Trachok said he initially planned otherwise. But he said he changed his mind after hearing many public comments from earlier speakers such as former regent Sig Rogich, who argued the landlocked, land-challenged campus needs it.

Regent Allison Stephens also expressed concern about Jessup speaking in “broad generalities” about the land’s use without a plan for the university reaching top-tier status.

The university wants to assemble a total of 80 acres fronting Tropicana, combining its new 42 acres and 38 acres Clark County owns between the site and Thomas & Mack Center. Restaurants and retail stores fronting Tropicana would generate revenue and also spruce up the appearance of the campus there.

Prospects for a stadium remain unclear.

UNLV successfully lobbied the Legislature to create an 11-member stadium panel that includes representatives from major hotel-casino companies such as MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment to study the issue. In 2014, that committee recommended a 45,000-seat open-air stadium with shading technology similar to Baylor University’s stadium.

But UNLV officials and Regent Leavitt want a stadium that is enclosed and big enough to hold 55,000-60,000 people, envisioning the venue to function as a neutral sports and entertainment facility in much the way Thomas & Mack does for Southern Nevada.

The university’s point man on the stadium, Don Snyder, who was the former acting UNLV president, now envisions UNLV working with a new gubernatorial tourism infrastructure to try and realize the domed stadium. UNLV also wants the Las Vegas area tourism and hotel-casino industries to pitch in and help fund any new stadium.

“The Board (of Regents) needed to know that the university was serious about both (stadium and campus village) options,” Snyder said. “I’m personally tied to the stadium because I have an investment (of time) in it.”

But Snyder’s contract with UNLV expires at the end of the month, and it’s unclear how the university would pay for a stadium. The current venue, Sam Boyd Stadium, is eight miles from campus and seats less than 40,000. UNLV added a new video board and turf there this year.

For now, UNLV is just happy to have room to grow.

After listening to Bomotti downplay the odds for a new stadium, UNLV Athletic Director Tina Kunzer-Murphy said, “That’s fine. Let’s get the acres.”

Nevada regents doing what they can

To the editor:

On June 5, the Review-Journal published an ill-informed editorial alleging the Board of Regents was incapable of addressing the purported shortcomings within the Nevada System of Higher Education. The editorial was replete with erroneous conclusions.

First, you say the board should not approve implementation of reduced budgets solely through funding reductions and program eliminations. Unfortunately, those two actions will have to occur given the magnitude of the budget cut.

The system has experienced the largest reduction of any state agency, from $611 million per year in 2008 to $473 million by 2012 while serving more than 114,000 students. But cutting programs is not the only action the board has taken. The board has been aggressively pursuing significant reforms and restructuring at every campus for more than three years. In the months ahead, we will continue those reform efforts, which already include implemented efficiencies in business practices, technology, credits required for degrees and institutional collaborations.

Second, you indicate the universities have “open-door admission policies” and have not implemented higher admission standards. That is incorrect. Admission requirements have been raised to a level comparable to similar universities across the West and require a 3.25 GPA and prescribed coursework. There never has been a “longstanding mission of growing each college and university campus as big as possible.” Instead, enrollment at Nevada institutions has kept pace with Nevada’s expanding population.

Third, you indicated we should have raised tuition at the universities. The facts are student fees have dramatically increased over the past four years: 49 percent for university undergraduates, 60 percent for graduates, 43 percent for state college students, and 32 percent for community college students. The board adopted a four-point plan in March, which was submitted to the Legislature, calling for 13 percent increases in each of the next two years.

Fourth, you say that our campuses have too many “highly paid, nonteaching administrators and faculty.” By any standard, this is simply not true. Nevada institutions have fewer employees per student than the national norm and our administrative employees are proportionately far fewer than most institutions.

Since Nevada’s population boom started, our institutions have sought to find a balance between access and quality. While enrollment in most universities nationwide was flat, from 1986 to 2010, our enrollment increased from 47,150 to 114,809, fed by the growing Nevada population and increasing numbers of high school graduates. Yet we are now headed into our fifth consecutive year of budget reductions, reducing our annual appropriation by more than $138 million.

Fifth, the editorial suggests that the “campuses set about the very expensive process of building research programs … ” This is unwarranted criticism on the internationally recognized research being performed at the universities and Desert Research Institute. While research is expensive, it allowed Nevada institutions to garner some $300 million in research grants in 2010, which in turn generated many times that much for the Nevada economy. If Nevada is truly dedicated to diversifying its economy, we need more research, not less.

Our ongoing challenge is how to use ever-decreasing revenue to meet an ever-increasing demand, while providing an outstanding education that contributes to Nevada’s urgent need to diversify its economy. Our economic future calls for a greater number of Nevadans with degrees, certificates and work force skills, as well as a strong research enterprise. Yet the board will unfortunately have to set priorities that will eliminate programs and opportunities for some students who might wish to attend college.

Education is a community-based endeavor and requires input and effort from all Nevadans if we are to succeed. We encourage your readers to get involved by going to www.nevada.edu to get the facts.

James Dean Leavitt
Las Vegas

Jason Geddes
Reno

Nevada regent pushes UNLV stadium dome

James Dean Leavitt wants to keep the dome alive.

Leavitt, a member of the Nevada Board of Regents and the 11-member UNLV stadium board, has asked acting university President Don Snyder to consider the option of adding a dome in the future if the panel recommends an open-air design for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus.

The board majority appears to back a stadium with canopies shading spectators, much like one opening soon at Baylor University in Texas.

Leavitt supports building a domed stadium on the UNLV campus because he argues an enclosed venue will generate more revenue. He said he believes it will be worth it over the long run to invest the extra $300 million.

Indeed, a consultant found that a $832.6 million domed stadium would generate 21 annual non-UNLV football events and attendance of 845,000, compared with a $522.9 million “Baylor option,” which would attract 11 non-UNLV football events and attendance of 372,000.

Leavitt said he wants stadium board consultant Bill Rhoda to price the cost of building an open-air stadium that would be able to take a future dome addition.

“It could be a hybrid approach that pleases everyone,” Leavitt said.

Rhoda said Monday he is unaware of any stadiums designed and built with the later option of taking a dome, but he said he is still checking and should have a cost estimate in time for the Aug. 28 stadium board meeting.

The current options are:

■ The Baylor option, with capacity for 45,000 spectators at $342 million for hard construction costs; $80.9 million for soft costs such as architectural expenses; and $100 million for site and infrastructure.

■ An open-air facility with capacity of 50,000 to 55,000 at $655.2 million — $449 million for hard construction; $106.2 million for soft costs; and $100 million for site and infrastructure.

■ A domed stadium with capacity of 50,000 to 55,000 at $592.5 million for construction; $140.1 million for soft costs; and $100 million for site and infrastructure.

Gaming representatives on the board prefer the least expensive option.

UNLV also is working on a site. An earlier identified site off Swenson Street on the campus’ northwest side won’t work because it would affect take-offs and landings at nearby McCarran International Airport. So university officials are considering a new site next to the Thomas & Mack Center, or off Tropicana Avenue at Koval Lane — off-campus but only a 10-minute walk from UNLV.

The board is required to issue a report to the Legislature by Oct. 1 saying if a stadium is necessary, what type it should be and how it would be paid for.

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @BicycleManSnel on Twitter.

Father, son pursue UNLV degrees together

By summer, James Dean Leavitt and Jesse Daniel Leavitt will share more than a family name.

Diplomas in hand, father and son will walk the stage as newly minted UNLV graduates at the school’s Thomas & Mack Center — the elder with a master’s degree in gaming law and the scion with a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling.

“For us to be attending UNLV at the same time is incredible,” said the senior James Dean Leavitt, a longtime Las Vegas lawyer who sits on the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents. “A cute part of the story is our schedules actually don’t permit time for us to see each other on campus. I’m just waiting for the day we’ll be walking around and see each other.”

The May 14 graduation ceremony will be extra special for James Dean Leavitt, who is part of an inaugural class pursuing the school’s new degree in gaming law. Officials say the university already offers more courses on the gambling industry than any other law school in the country.

“We’re elated that political and education leaders in the state are interested in the program,” said Boyd Law School Dean Dan Hamilton, referring to the elder Leavitt and his classmate, state Sen. Becky Harris, R-Las Vegas. “It’s a great opportunity to have policymakers from the state in the class because they offer a unique and valuable perspective.”

Board members lauded James Dean Leavitt for juggling work, school and public service, noting that his experience as a UNLV student brings on-the-ground insight to the panel.

“It’ll be really special to see a colleague walking across the stage,” fellow Regent Allison Stephens said. “With his son graduating at the same time, I know that’s something significant for him. As a mom, I can understand how meaningful that would be.”

Jesse Daniel Leavitt, who has a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, said he is inspired to see his 54-year-old father pursue higher education nearly 25 years after getting his law degree from the University of Idaho.

“I’m really proud,” said the younger Leavitt, 26. “I think it’s important to keep learning throughout your life. It’ll be a very cool moment to have that experience together — not many people get to say they’re graduating with their dad.”

LETTERS: UNLV medical school needs full support

To the editor:

At the Board of Regents meeting in Elko in September, the Health Sciences System Committee directed the presidents of the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, along with the UNR medical school dean, to develop plans to create full-scale, four-year allopathic campuses in Reno and Las Vegas. The ultimate result would be a separate, independent, free-standing UNLV School of Medicine.

As a result of the committee’s directive, a Memorandum of Understanding was entered into by the Nevada System of Higher Education, UNR, UNLV and the School of Medicine. The MOU was discussed Dec. 5 and unanimously endorsed by the full Board of Regents. The MOU focuses on designing, financing and building a major facility to create full clinical and basic science teaching and research capacity in Las Vegas. The MOU also focuses on creating full clinical and basic science teaching and research capacity in Reno.

As a result of that unanimous vote, the committee directed UNR, UNLV and the School of Medicine to form campus-specific committees with broad stakeholder support to focus on facilities, staffing, time frames, Liaison Committee for Medical Education accreditation, funding (private and state), and operating and capital requirements for each phase of campus development. The committees will also focus on graduate medical education and the partnerships necessary with teaching hospitals and community physicians, as well as increasing the number and quality of residencies and fellowship training. These committees will report back to the Health Sciences System Committee at its next meeting in March.

The development of each campus will be entirely dependent on available resources, both private and state. It is time for Las Vegas and the entire state of Nevada to wholeheartedly support this critical endeavor. Financial support and expertise from Las Vegas and Nevada will result in significant economic impacts, as well as dramatic changes in medical education, research, training and patient care, all leading to a healthier Nevada.

I am grateful for the enthusiastic support from my colleagues, as well as leadership from the Nevada System of Higher Education, UNLV, UNR and the School of Medicine. I would like to thank members of the Clark County Commission, Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce, Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, Clark County Medical Society and members of the public who took time to attend our meeting and extend their support. We need support and guidance from all Nevadans. Please join us as we turn this dream into reality.

JAMES DEAN LEAVITT

LAS VEGAS

The writer is a member of the Nevada Board of Regents and chairman of the Health Sciences System Committee.

Regents agree on $110,000 settlement to oust chief of staff after 3 months on the job

Robert Kilroy, the chief of staff and special counsel to the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents, resigned late Thursday and agreed to a $110,000 payout from regents that ends his stint under the board after just three months on the job, according to documents obtained by The Nevada Independent.

The surprise resignation came after three unnamed regents called on Board Chair Cathy McAdoo on Monday to convene a special public meeting to discuss Kilroy’s firing on Friday.

The reasons behind Kilroy’s ouster have not been made public, and no details were included on Friday’s meeting agenda posted online.

In a statement, Kilroy’s personal attorney, James Dean Leavitt — a former regent who publicly criticized the board and threatened legal action after he was not included in a list of finalists for the chief of staff position — wrote that once the meeting was scheduled, “it caused irreparable harm and would have made it impossible for him to succeed regardless of the meeting outcome tomorrow.”

The statement also thanked the board for what Kilroy called “the opportunity of a lifetime” and that he “hopes that his successor will be given the opportunity to succeed,” adding that he would give no further comment.

McAdoo did not immediately respond to requests for comment via email and phone. A press release sent late Thursday confirmed that McAdoo accepted Kilroy’s resignation, and said the Friday meeting had been canceled as a result.

Kilroy was hired in June, after a months-long search process that was plagued by stops and starts since 2021. He replaced former chief of staff and special counsel Dean Gould, who resigned at the end of 2020 following two public disputes with former Regent Lisa Levine.

It’s the latest departure at the top levels of the higher education system, which has endured staffing turmoil in recent years. Most notably, the system spent several months embroiled in an outside investigation over claims of a hostile work environment and gender discrimination from former Chancellor Melody Rose.

That investigation found “insufficient evidence” of gender discrimination, though it also found instances of an “inappropriate professional environment” and potential ethics violations by some regents.

Rose later settled with regents, resigning as part of a $610,000 payout in April that, like Kilroy, precluded a public personnel session in which regents would have voted on Rose’s continued employment. She was later replaced in June by acting Chancellor Dale Erquiaga, who has also signaled he will not remain as chancellor beyond the end of his contract at the end of 2023.

Update: 11/17/2022 at 4:08 p.m. — This story was updated following an announcement late Thursday that the special regents meeting to consider Kilroy's employment had been canceled.

The Nevada Independent is a 501(c)3 nonprofit news organization. We are committed to transparency and disclose all our donors. The following people or entities mentioned in this article are financial supporters of our work:

Lisa Levine - $382
Lisa Levine - $100
Dean Gould - $25

Jacob Solis

Chewing over UNLV’s search for an athletic director

By Ron Kantowski

Other than the night during March Madness a couple of years ago when a bunch of fellow scribes and I shamed Mark Alden into buying us a sack of White Castles after the bars closed in St. Louis, I couldn’t remember the last time I broke bread with one of the Nevada system regents.

Much less the chairman of the board.

So when James Dean Leavitt called the other day with a lunch invitation, I was at once flattered and skeptical — skeptical, because when a regent asks a sports writer to lunch, the first thing that usually comes to mind is Darrell Royal, the old Texas coach, describing the forward pass:

You know that when you pass, three things can happen, and two of them are bad.

My sense of dread was temporary alleviated when James Dean — which is how a lot of people I know refer to him — picked me up outside his office in his Porsche 550 Spyder and I noticed there were about a month’s worth of newspapers scattered across the passenger seat and floorboards.

(Actually, it wasn’t a Porsche Spyder but some big red boxy thing with a license plate that reads UNLV-UNR and all the options, the sort of car you expect a successful defense attorney to drive, and since there were no head-on accidents between his downtown office and the nearest Tony Roma’s, it really didn’t matter all that much how we got there.)

“Man, we could use a few more like you,” I said, impressed that James Dean Leavitt, chairman of the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents, still acquires his news the old-fashioned way.

He told me he had a hockey background, mostly because he grew up in Calgary, where they have a fine organ-I-zation. Maybe Scotty Bowman’s gonna be the new UNLV athletic director, I thought.

Leavitt also said he was schooled at Brigham Young, and I said I wouldn’t hold that against him. Then he ordered a burger without the bun and I ordered a chicken salad without the chicken.

Then he interviewed me about who I thought should be the new A.D.

Whoa! Like Texas quarterback James Street’s bomb on fourth-and-short against Arkansas in ’69, I never saw that coming.

The songwriter Warren Zevon was fond of saying, “I’m not namin’ names,” and I’m not going to single out any here, only that I think highly of Tina Kunzer-Murphy, the Las Vegas Bowl executive director; and Steve Stallworth, the general manager of South Point arena; and Jerry Koloskie, UNLV’s interim AD, and that any of those locals would be a big improvement over what we’ve had to endure recently. That’s basically what I told Leavitt.

And like I’ve been writing all along, I told him I thought the job should go to a local this time, because Manny (Jim Weaver), Moe (Charlie Cavagnaro) and Jack (Mike Hamrick) were outsiders whose main accomplishments at the end of the day were overcharging for labor.

But I never was very good on the other side of the tape recorder, so eventually, I took it back from James Dean Leavitt and told him it was my turn, and that the little red light was on.

The first thing he said was that as much as he and his fellow regents want to be involved in the process of identifying the candidates and hiring the new athletic director — and even though technically they’ll have the last word when it comes to ratifying his or her contract — the decision would be Dr. Neal Smatresk’s and his alone, because that’s what university presidents get paid to do.

“Ultimately, the regents will approve the contract once the decision is made by President Smatresk,” Leavitt said.

“The board clearly recognizes the value that the athletic director brings to the institution is very similar and comparable in some ways to the academics that lead the institution. We’re hoping that whoever is selected has the knowledge and the personality and those dynamic qualities that can engage the entire community.

“That’s what we need for UNLV athletics to continue to improve and be at the highest level.”

I say UNLV needs to concentrate on beating New Mexico and TCU and raising a little money and forget about the highest level, and that a local guy or gal should be anointed as Fearless Leader, but, as I say, I already had my chance to talk, and now it was James Dean’s.

“I think we are going to be in a situation here where we have several credible local talented candidates. But I believe Neal also wants to open it up and make (the search) national and as competitive as it should be.

“President Smatresk has indicated that he will get going seriously on this in the spring, but I believe that even as we speak he is certainly talking to the boosters, to the alumni and to the professionals in the field.”

If nothing else, by inviting me to lunch and picking my brain (no poleax necessary when one of those toothpicks at the cash register will do) about who the new athletic director should be, James Dean showed he’s a Rebel With a Cause. (Of course, he left that afternoon for South Bend, Ind., where he’d watch the Wolf Pack play Notre Dame.)

He’s willing to roll up his sleeves and his pant legs and get knee-deep in the process, if that’s what it takes to help the president make the right call.

I find that refreshing.