Punta Arena de la Ventana resort promoter's release comes too late
http://www.lvrj.com/news/baja-resort-promoter-s-release-come...
by John L. Smith
Jun. 24, 2012
It's vacation season, and there's nothing quite like the thought of an ocean breeze and long stretch of sandy beach to soothe the soul and excite the
senses.
Add a premier resort with amenities ranging from a golf course to a private airport, and you have the makings of an irresistible experience.
At least, that's what an intriguing group of investors must have thought several years ago when they started to develop the dreamy sounding Punta
Arena de la Ventana project outside La Paz in southern Baja California.
These days that dream has been deferred, and weeds and litigation have taken root in the development's sandy soil. Frustrated investors, many of whom
have ties to Las Vegas, for years have wrestled for control of the project in Mexican and Southern Nevada courts.
Flamboyant former Las Vegas big-idea man Kerry Rogers was once the project's greatest promoter. Despite a long rap sheet that included a 1985
conviction for his participation in a mobbed-up, $20 million bank fraud in New Jersey, Rogers attracted wealthy investors who were drawn by his vision
and savantlike sales skills. Among those who believed in Rogers enough to put up their own money: attorneys David Chesnoff and Marty Keach.
Another key investor is Las Vegan Joseph A. Bravo, who in 1993 was convicted in a federal drug trafficking case linked to the Buffalo mob. Several
attorneys who know him, partners Keach and Chesnoff among them, recently vouched for Bravo's character and work ethic.
And you can add Las Vegas political adviser Sig Rogich to the list of Bravo's supporters. Rogich's company handles press relations for the
development, valued at between $100 million and $200 million.
"I like him," Rogich said. "I think he's a good guy. He literally works as hard as any guy I've ever met."
Bravo's name surfaced in the Mexican press in connection with a ribbon cutting for the development's private airport. (The ceremony was attended by
then-Baja Sur Gov. Narciso Agundez Montano, who was recently arrested on corruption charges in connection with a land development in Cabo San Lucas.)
For some reason, a convicted drug trafficker opening a private airport in narcotics cartel-ravaged Mexico made reporters curious.
No word yet on whether those associated with Punta de la Ventana also endorse the characters of Lester Smith and Howard Oberlander, convicted drug
traffickers who also invested in the development. As the story goes, Bravo met Smith and Oberlander while all three were serving time in federal
prison.
Kerry Rogers had seen the inside of his share of lockups. In a reversal of fortune worthy of a Carl Hiaasen novel, Rogers went from the development's
driver's seat to a cramped Mexican jail cell in April 2010 after being accused of ripping off his investors.
Officially, Rogers was charged in Mexico with the fraudulent administration of a corporation, which sort of sounds like business as usual south of the
border.
He was never convicted of a crime associated with the Punta Arena de la Ventana project. He was, however, buried beneath a civil case filed in Clark
County District Court by some of his jilted investors. Part of the local litigation included one highly unusual occurrence: the swearing out of a
bench warrant for his arrest for purloining the Mexican real estate.
Instead of turning over the land rights or turning himself in, Rogers headed south, where he lived comfortably until that April night when the
authorities came knocking. Once Rogers was in jail, a Mexican judge made sure he would stay put by setting bail at 777 million pesos, or about $77
million. (Bail was later reduced to a mere $11 million.)
Rogers had been far from a saint in his hustler's life, but while in the La Paz city jail he endured a vicious beating and the planting of drugs in
his cell. The jaw slowly mended and the drug charge went away, but the throat cancer he'd fought years earlier returned and spread to his esophagus.
Month after month, daughter Brittney Rogers fought to have her father released from the La Paz jail. But with rulings pending against him in two
countries, his fortunes appeared hopelessly tangled.
On a website devoted to assisting her father's cause, she wrote, "There are parties behind the scenes doing everything they can to make sure Kerry
does not leave Mexico alive. ... Although Kerry has prevailed on numerous federal appeals to reduce the bail, these appeals have been delayed through
technicalities and efforts by those who filed the charges against him."
Brittney Rogers declined an interview request.
With Kerry Rogers' health steadily worsening, a hearing was set for March 30 in Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez's court to entertain
arguments whether to quash the bench warrant and allow the apparently dying man to return to the United States to seek emergency medical treatment.
Plaintiffs' attorney Paul Hejmanowski argued, "Your honor, the motion that's before you is well-typed, and the grammar is excellent. But, frankly, the
rest of that motion is wholly deficient. There's not a fact in front of you; there is not a scrap of evidence. Counsel has made the representation she
believes of the facts, but those of us who've lived in the Kerry Rogers world for all these many years know that his requests for special treatment,
which come so often, are often not based upon fact, they're not true, they're not sincere. Is he sick? Perhaps. How sick? I have no idea. Neither, I
suspect, does anybody else in this courtroom. We don't have a medical affidavit. We don't have the testimony of any doctors. We don't even have an
affidavit from Mr. Rogers. We don't have a single fact in the motion as to why the bench warrant should be dismissed."
And it wasn't. Although Rogers was finally released from the La Paz jail for medical reasons, freedom came much too late to save him. He died in the
early morning hours of April 6 after being denied competent medical treatment for more than seven months.
On her website, Brittney Rogers wrote, "We spent the last three weeks pleading to both Governments that this would happen, unfortunately they did not
listen and now Kerry is gone. Kerry was never found guilty and died a free man. His daughter and son-in-law were by his side in the hospital in La
Paz, Mexico."
In a conference call with fellow plaintiffs attorney Max Couvillier, Hejmanowski on Friday described Rogers as "a very charismatic guy. Quite frankly,
he was fun" if "a little twisted. ... He was very, very smart. And he was very conscious of being in his opinion smarter than everyone in the room.
And he might have been."
Now that their nemesis is gone, the investors in the Punta Arena de la Ventana development can return to the business of creating the destination
resort of their dreams.
It sounds like a great place, but this year I think I'll vacation a little closer to home.
Reference:
http://www.savekerryrogers.com
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