Ethics panel to hear Gates’ request to limit subpoena

Jeff Schweers

Friday, Jan. 9, 1998 | 10:31 a.m.

The state Ethics Commission will hold a special meeting Wednesday via teleconference to consider a request from Clark County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates to limit which of her records it can subpoena.

The announcement reverses a prior decision by Ethics Commission Chairwoman Mary Boetsch denying a request from Gates' attorney Kathy England to narrow its demand for all personal and business records for the past two years.

"The intent of the hearing is to allow the entire commission to render a ruling regarding Yvonne Atkinson Gates' motion to amend the subpoena," said Louis Ling, a deputy attorney general assigned as legal counsel to the Ethics Commission.

"Perhaps our motion to quash educated them as to the rudimentary fundamentals of subpoena issuance and the right of persons being dragged into their proceedings be done so properly and fairly," England said.

The motion also challenges the legality of the subpoena because there is no evidence it was issued with a majority vote of the Ethics Commission.

"They either voted on it in violation of open meeting law, because it wasn't noticed, or somebody acted outside the scope of their statutory authority," England said.

The meeting is scheduled two days after Chief District Judge Myron Leavitt is scheduled to hear a motion to quash the subpoena on the grounds that it is patently overbroad and invades the privacy of Gates and her family.

England contends the subpoena invades Gates' privacy by demanding information unrelated to the focus of its investigation -- whether Gates told the truth about her role in securing leases for a frozen daiquiri business at hotel-casinos she helps regulate.

The subpoena, signed by Boetsch, demanded all records and documents, whether personal or work-related, from Jan. 1, 1996 to the present. It also demanded records of every phone call from any phone Gates regularly used, be it a home telephone, office phone or cellular phone, fax machine or modem.

The case is scheduled for Monday at 1:30 p.m. in Department No. 12.

Gates is scheduled to appear before the panel Jan. 22 to prove that she was truthful at a previous hearing where she explained her role in obtaining leases for the daiquiri business she has since divested herself of.

"What the (ethics) chairwoman decided is that in order to prevent any further delay in this matter and because it is an important matter for Ms. Gates and the commission, it would be best to have the entire commission to hear this motion," Ling said.

The Jan. 14 agenda item also will cover any other discovery-related issues that might be pending, Ling said. England had subpoenaed the ethics panel to produce all evidence it had pertaining to the case involving Gates. Ling said copies of the Ethics Commission's files were being sent to her.

England said her request was for inspection of the original file and permission to copy, not to receive copies, but Ling told her she could only inspect the originals if she traveled to Carson City.

Also, Ling is only sending copies of the commission's files, England said, "so if they've had access to other files, like his files, I don't get those."