In 2017, I was a consultant and cooperating witness with the FBI supervised by case agent (who some would call my “handler”), FBI Special Agent Glenn Harrison.
One evening during that time, I went to dinner at Piero’s — a well-known, popular, and highly regarded Italian restaurant off the Las Vegas Strip across from the Convention Center on Convention Center Drive. High-level politicos and celebrities frequented the restaurant. It was used as a location during the filming of the hit movie, Casino, starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone. It was that kind of Italian restaurant.
At my table that evening were current First Assistant for the District of Nevada, Sigal Chattah (who at the time was a defense attorney) the late Judge Melanie Tobiasson, and Anthony “Nino” D’Anna, who at the time was my friend.
It was a big night out. We all sat at a table in the left of the back bar area. (Photo)
Tobiasson, in my observation, became very inebriated over the course of the dinner. At one point, she and Chattah separately followed D’Anna into the bathroom; D’Anna provided a substance that is typically snorted. Both ladies were sniffing and wiping their noses as they came back out of the bathroom.
After the drinking and the trip to the bathroom, the late Judge Tobiasson reached into her purse and pulled out an enormous handgun. It looked to be at least eight inches long — maybe a Colt 45 or a Magnum 357, something like that. She began waving it around, showing it off, and pointing it every which way. I was sitting next to her at the table. I gently but firmly took hold of the gun and took it away from her. I emptied the bullets from the cylinder onto the table. Waving a loaded gun around a restaurant obviously was a recipe for disaster.
I mentioned to D’Anna how inebriated and messed up the late judge seemed, and he related a story to me about how before they even went into the restaurant that night, the two of them had sex in her brand new yellow Corvette — which I couldn’t even imagine how that was able to be accomplished.
The next day, I called FBI Special Agent Glenn Harrison and related the story to him. He said I had to get D’Anna talking about that evening to get it on record. He told me to call D’Anna and get him to talk about it, giving me permission to do so, citing exigent circumstances and that this event involved officers of the court.
I did that. I called D’Anna twice and recorded both phone calls; I put them on a thumb drive and gave them to FBI Special Agent Glenn Harrison. This was almost 10 years ago; to my knowledge, no action was ever taken by SA Harrison. On another note, FBI Special Agent Glenn Harrison’s brother, Brett Harrison worked for Vickie Dehart at that time. D’Anna later would become romantically involved with Dehart. They currently live together at her recently purchased $7 million home in The Ridges.
All this is important and relevant, because also in 2017, D’Anna was facing charges of domestic battery and strangulation (Case No. 17F08833X) by his one-time girlfriend, who he was accused of beating and strangling to the point of unconsciousness. That case came before Judge Tobiasson, who ultimately dismissed the charges. That introduction by Chattah of Tony D’Anna to Judge Tobiasson resulted in a huge payoff for D’Anna, to say the least.