Quon testifies about home foreclosure

At a nearly five-hour examination under oath March 1 with State Farm Insurance representatives, Quon said she defaulted on two loans totaling roughly $700,000 to obtain lower mortgage rates, according to transcripts.

"In order to negotiate with them, that was part of the process, unfortunately," she testified.

Las Vegas police suspect Quon set fire to the two-story Rhodes Ranch home on Oct. 28 in a botched suicide attempt to escape the pressure of the federal HOA investigation.

Quon has denied scheming to kill herself, and a county grand jury in April refused to indict her on arson and insurance fraud charges.

But the panel indicted Quon, 51, and her live-in boyfriend, former Las Vegas police officer William Ronald Webb, in another suicide scheme to obtain the club drug gamma hydroxybutyric acid for Quon. The couple thought the GHB would be undetectable if Quon took it, police allege.

Last week, the district attorney’s office told Quon and Webb, 43, that it planned to ask a new grand jury to indict them in the fire.

At the outset of the March examination, State Farm attorney Riley Clayton told Quon that her lack of cooperation hurt the company’s investigation of whether it had an obligation to pay Quon for some $250,000 in damages the fire caused. Quon was found unconscious in her smoke-filled home and revived by paramedics, who said they treated her for a "narcotics overdose."

Clayton said Quon had made it clear for months that she didn’t want to talk to the insurance company.

She showed up to the examination with two lawyers, Thomas Pitaro, who is defending her in the criminal cases, and Nathan Reinmiller, who represents her in the insurance fight.

As the examination ended, Clayton told Quon he wanted to resume the questioning another day.

But last week Reinmiller filed a lawsuit against State Farm looking to bar the attorney from grilling Quon again.

Reinmiller said the insurance company is in cahoots with prosecutors, putting Quon in a position of having to assert her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

State Farm spokeswoman Donna Fisher-Brown responded, "We’re not in the business of working with anyone other than our policy owners to settle their claims."

Quon also stepped up her attacks last week on prosecutors in a television interview arranged by her paid media strategist, Mark Fierro.

In the insurance examination, Quon acknowledged that she had the same psychiatrist as Webb, who is behind bars awaiting trial with Quon. The psychiatrist had prescribed two anti-anxiety medications for her, she testified.

Quon identified one of medications as Clonazepam, which is used to control seizures and relieve panic attacks.

"It makes you very sleepy, like extremely relaxed," she testified

The psychiatrist, she said, recommended she take two pills at night to help her sleep.

Quon couldn’t recall the name of the other medication, but said she didn’t like its effects and rarely took it.

In the afternoon before the fire, Quon testified, she decided to get into her backyard hot tub, taking along a new "beer" that Webb suggested she try before he left for San Diego. The drink, however, made her feel strange, and she said she ended up going to sleep upstairs in her bedroom.

Quon said she woke up in the early evening but still felt groggy, so she lit some candles around the fireplace and tub in the bedroom and took a hot bath.

"I never felt the effect like I did after drinking that particular beer," she testified. "It was a very strange feeling, kind of up and down and then down and just … I’ve never had that particular reaction to alcohol before."

The "beer" Quon described was Four Loko, a malt beverage that is reported to have the alcohol content of four to six beers and as much caffeine as four to six cups of coffee. It comes in 24-ounce cans.

Quon testified that she saw four large cans of the beverage in the refrigerator, but fire investigators told the grand jury that they found only one can.

Still feeling tired after her bath, Quon said, she took her pills and went to sleep on the sofa in her downstairs den.

The last thing Quon said she remembered was waking up in the ambulance the next morning.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.