Petition probe charges denied

Wednesday, April 11, 2001 | 11:15 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Five-term Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, vehemently denies the wrongdoing alleged by an investigation into an initiative petition she spearheaded last year to break up the Clark County School District.

Secretary of State Dean Heller said Tuesday his office has completed a four-month investigation and has turned the case over to Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa for possible criminal charges.

Heller said there was potential perjury by a document signer and a petition circulator "as well as inappropriate activity on the part of the petition sponsor (Tiffany)."

Tiffany said she was upset with Heller for linking her to possible wrongdoing.

"There is not one damn thing I did wrong," she said Tuesday.

The investigation allegedly uncovered falsified names or signatures on a petition in Mineral County.

Heller said he has referred allegations involving Tiffany and two others , Brad Lawrence of Las Vegas and Elizabeth Horton of Hawthorne, to the attorney general for criminal investigation.

"If potentially illegal activity such as this did indeed occur, it absolutely will not be tolerated," Heller said. "Dishonest and illegal conduct of this sort undermines the integrity of the electoral process and more importantly, the people's confidence and trust in the process."

Del Papa said she will decide if her office or the Mineral County district attorney should conduct the investigation.

Tiffany said she was confident she would be cleared but added the allegations could still damage her political career.

"I would expect the sponsors of initiative petitions to take a more pro-active role in ensuring that the initiative process is not tainted by these kinds of tactics. I hope that by sending a strong message in this case, petition sponsors will work diligently to avoid this type of activity in the future," Heller said.

The initiative petition did not gather enough signatures to qualify. It was ruled defective in five of the state's 17 counties. To qualify, 10 percent of the voters needed to have signed in 13 counties. It didn't get the necessary names in Mineral, Douglas, Elko and Washoe counties or Carson City.

When Heller declared the petition invalid on Nov. 10, Tiffany said she went to Mineral County to review the signatures because she needed only one more county. And she said she talked with attorneys for the Legislature who advised her she could still gather more signatures in that county to take care of the deficiency.

Upon examination of the original petition, she and the Mineral county clerk found what appeared to be forgeries. She never informed law enforcement but said the county clerk and Heller's office knew about the falsified signatures.

She identified a woman as the person who submitted the petition pages where the false signatures appeared. The woman, Tiffany said, was a friend of Horton's. And that woman, she said, now has disappeared.

Tiffany personally gathered 23 additional signatures, but the petition was still ruled invalid. She then served notice of an appeal, but withdrew her petition. Heller said the appeal prompted the examination of the Mineral County signatures.

She said she never heard another word from Heller that an investigation had been launched. She objected to the press release from Heller that said the three names have been turned over for investigation "for review of potential violations of state law."

The press release makes it appear that she did something wrong, Tiffany said.

She said Lawrence, who lives in Las Vegas, notarized the petitions.