Fighter’s link to alleged slaying plot creates Ultimate headache

The image-obsessed Ultimate Fighting Championship took a punch in the jaw this past week when mixed martial arts star Tito Ortiz stepped up to post a $500,000 bond for a Las Vegas man accused of attempting to have his son murdered.

In doing so, Ortiz not only called attention to his felonious associations, but he also created a headache for UFC President Dana White.

Ortiz posted a collateral bond for Keith Harriman, who allegedly hired a hit man to murder his 27-year-old son, Dominick, over the exposure of the father's alleged insurance fraud and a twisted familial love triangle. Charged with a dozen felonies, the elder Harriman was released from the Clark County Detention Center thanks to Ortiz.

Dominick Harriman was shot nine times on Aug. 27 at the Nice Cars of Nevada lot on 3401 S. Decatur Blvd. He survived his wounds. The shooter has not been identified.

Nice Cars of Nevada is owned by Wayne Harriman, Keith's brother. Moments after the shots were fired, Wayne Harriman reached the fallen Dominick and held the young man until help arrived.

Ortiz is well known to Keith and Wayne Harriman, Dominick Harriman said in an interview. Early in his fighting career, Ortiz was managed by Wayne Harriman. In recent years, the fighter has stayed at the Las Vegas home of Keith Harriman.

Published reports credit Wayne Harriman with helping to resolve a dispute between Ortiz and White. The result was a six-fight contract in July 2009 that kept the popular Ortiz in the UFC spotlight. According to his Wikipedia entry, White has managed the careers of Ortiz and UFC fighter Chuck Liddell.

In an interview, Dominick Harriman spoke respectfully about his uncle Wayne, adding, "He's big in, like the fight industry and stuff. He used to own a fight league. He brought up a lot of fighters. Some UFC champions were his fighters.

"Tito Ortiz was his fighter. He's known Tito since I'm 14, and I'm 27 now. He basically got Tito involved in the UFC from the very beginning."

Keith Harriman's relationship with Ortiz was a very different story, the son said: "Seven or eight years ago, Keith leeched onto Tito. Tito would use Keith to have a place to stay. Keith was his little bitch boy."

At one point Ortiz offered to help the drug-addled father seek help, said Dominick, who admitted his own struggles with drugs and a passing association with the 311 Boyz youth gang.

As for Wayne Harriman's association with the chairman of the wildly popular UFC, he added, "My uncle's good friends with Dana White."

Attempts to reach White by telephone were unsuccessful.

But his attorney, Donald Campbell, offered this: "With respect to Mr. Ortiz, there is no personal relationship. There is, however, an arm's-length, commercial relationship that exists between my client Mr. White and Mr. Ortiz. And that is as follows: Mr. Ortiz is an independent contractor who is currently under contract to fight in the UFC. That is the sum total of the relationship that Mr. Ortiz has with the UFC and Mr. White."

While he might admire the brawling Ortiz, Keith Harriman has done much of his fighting in criminal court. He has a federal conviction for attempting to bribe a public official. His name also surfaced prominently in the drug-related shooting death in Las Vegas of Luis Ortiz by Arturo Torres Ochoa. At trial, Harriman testified that he often purchased rock cocaine from Ochoa and sometimes exchanged automobiles from his used-car lot for drugs. Ochoa was found guilty.

Wayne Harriman was among 16 defendants who pleaded guilty before trial in 1994 in Las Vegas in a federal drug investigation involving the Buffalo mob. Led by organized crime figure Paul Citelli, the crew that included Harriman was accused of moving more than 400 kilograms of cocaine in the late 1980s through Southern Nevada.

Wayne Harriman appears to have been a bit player in that case, but today he finds himself at the center of a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation in Fresno County, Calif., that has resulted in a criminal complaint charging him with conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

In the Jan. 22, 2010, affidavit filed by DEA Special Agent Kevin Boleky, an undercover investigation found evidence of Harriman's integral involvement in the drug trafficking activities of Greg Olmos Sr. and Greg Olmos Jr. In the affidavit, Olmos Jr. is described as being "connected with fighters in the mixed martial arts community along with the Hells Angels." The father and son are alleged to have drug connections with the Hells Angels through Wayne Harriman, according to the document.

It remains to be seen whether the Ortiz-Harriman association generates an inquiry by the Nevada Athletic Commission, which licenses professional fighters in the state. Traditionally, the commission has been notoriously soft on policing the associations of fighters and promoters even when they have ended up embarrassing the state.

But it appears UFC president White, the face of a hugely lucrative company, could use an image cut man right about now.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.