In June 1999, she appointed George C. Swarts, a certified public accountant, as a receiver -- someone to run the company while it was embroiled in the dispute.
Within six months, McGhan and a second, separate group of stockholders filed complaints that Swarts' decisions were biased, lacked expertise and often were unauthorized by Saitta.
Privately, attorneys expressed dismay. "George [Swarts] had inordinate power" with the judge, Alfred E. Augustini, a Los Angeles attorney and legal advisor to McGhan, said in an interview. Swarts "would threaten us, tell us, 'The judge will do anything I ask, whatever I present to her.' George was running the case. We had to yield to George ... comfort George ... agree with George. He was God
What Swarts wanted most of all, Augustini said, was "to keep the meter running." The case was in limbo, he said, and "limbo was paying very well."
Swarts' fees were mounting.
"We tried to get Saitta to fire Swarts," Augustini said, "but that only made things worse."
McGhan tried to disqualify Saitta from the case.
"Judge Saitta has publicly pronounced McGhan guilty three times without hearing the evidence or the testimony of witnesses," said his Nevada attorneys, Steve Morris and Todd L. Bice, in a motion filed in August 2000. "By passing judgment ... without a trial, Judge Saitta can no longer be considered a fair and neutral arbiter.... Under the law, she is required to step aside."
Swarts' attorneys countered that the real target of the attack was Swarts.
The request to remove Saitta went before Lee Gates, the chief judge in Las Vegas at the time.
But Gates had a possible conflict. An attorney from the Frank Ellis law firm, which often represented Swarts, was defending Gates' wife, Yvonne Atkinson Gates, a county commissioner, against a recall, including a lawsuit that court records show was on appeal before the state Supreme Court.
A recent search found no statement in court records that Judge Gates disclosed the relationship or similar relationships in two other cases involving his wife and the Ellis law firm.
Within two weeks, he denied the motion to disqualify Saitta, declaring that she "is not biased or prejudiced concerning any party."
By now, Saitta had come under attack for refusing to let anyone examine paperwork supporting the first bill submitted by Swarts and his lawyers: $524,680 in fees from June 29, 1999, to May 30, 2000.
