Maximum fine levied for false complaint

Thursday, June 25, 1998 | 11:01 a.m.

The Ethics Commission has decided to send a message to people who file frivolous or false ethics complaints by slapping Brooks Compton, his mother and his former stepfather with the maximum penalty allowed under state law.

The commission Wednesday handed out $5,000 fines against Compton, Shari Compton and Steve Smith for conspiring with Shaughn Daily to file a false complaint against former County Commissioner Paul Christensen.

"They acted in concert with Daily," Ethics Commission Chairwoman Mary Boetsch said after the ruling.

But lawyers for Brooks Compton, a political consultant and former County Commission candidate, said he would appeal the decision.

"All we have to do is get into a real court and file a petition for judicial review," Pat Norhden, lawyer for the Comptons and Smith, said. Norhden said he was confident that a judge would throw the case out once the facts were laid out.

Brooks Compton ran against Christensen in the 1996 Democratic primary and lost. Daily was a campaign coordinator for Compton through the primary and had filed at least two ethics complaints against Christensen.

It was the third complaint, a letter from one "Helena Lockridge," that got Daily in trouble. The letter accused Christensen of using his position as chairman of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to get first-class trips for his wife and himself and for using a county phone number in his campaign literature.

The name on the complaint turned out to be fictitious. At a hearing in May, Daily told the panel that he had faxed them the letter without any prompting from the Comptons or Smith. The panel fined Daily $2,500.

Boetsch said she didn't believe the Comptons or Smith when they said that they had nothing to do with the fictitious letter -- based on their demeanor and attitude when answering questions from ethics commissioners.

"We're saying they're all lying," Boetsch said.

Ethics vice-chairwoman Helen Chisolm said she wanted to fine them the maximum penalty "to show everyone that this is not a game."