‘The other’ Parks ruled off ballot by judge

Erin Neff

Friday, June 28, 2002 | 11:14 a.m.

Although new evidence emerged Thursday linking an assembly challenger to anti-gay operatives, it was David Parks' own testimony that got him thrown off the ballot.

Chief District Court Judge Mark Gibbons ordered Parks removed from the ballot in the Democratic primary for Assembly District 41 because Parks said he lives in Nevada 40 percent of the time, and because he failed to show any documentation to support that claim.

"Putting aside the political maneuvers ... here it just doesn't appear that Mr. Parks is a resident of Nevada at this time," Gibbons said after a 3-hour hearing.

Parks filed to run against incumbent Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, on the last day to file for office after striding into the clerk's office with anti-gay crusader Tony Dane. The incumbent is the only openly gay lawmaker and has previously drawn both Tony Dane and his father, Phillip Dane, as Republican opponents.

The challenger Parks initially denied knowing the Danes, but later admitted he lied about that and set into motion an investigation by the incumbent's campaign to find out who the challenger really is.

That led to the residency challenge and ultimately the challenger Parks' removal from the ballot.

"I'll be back in two years," Parks said after the decision. "I think that apparently the election was settled in the courts and not before the voters."

Parks then blamed the media and said the incumbent was "running scared."

"Those are technicalities," Parks said of the residency questions. "Is living here 40 percent, 45 percent, 50 percent of the time a resident?"

Parks testified that he works in California as a software salesman, but "spends his money" in Las Vegas where he rents a room from an 84-year-old friend of the Danes.

During Thursday's hearing, the incumbent's attorney, Dominic Gentile, showed a videotaped interview with Belah Harris recorded secretly by private investigator David Groover.

In court last Wednesday, Harris said Parks had lived with her since late 1997 and pays her $300 a month rent in cash. On the video, she angrily denounces Parks for not paying rent and freeloading off her kindness.

"I believe he's all screwed up," Harris said at one point, drawing cackles from Phillip Dane as he sat in the audience watching the videotape.

Harris went on to say that Parks is "drunk as a skunk" and a "fool," and said he was not welcome to bring a girl he met on the Internet to her home because "it isn't a whorehouse."

Parks and Tony and Phillip Dane smiled throughout the 30-minute video. Afterward, Parks' attorney, Michael Root, said the tape only solidified Harris' truthfulness, because she consistently told Groover that Parks had lived with her on and off since 1998.

The videotape, while filled with Harris' salt-of-the Earth commentary, proved politically timid compared to a witness Gentile called.

Sean Dorsey said he contacted Gentile after watching a televised news report about last Wednesday's hearing because he had worked with the challenger Parks in California and had overheard him talking about running against a David Parks to "stir things up."

Dorsey worked with Parks at Digital Direct Services in Gardena, Calif., where Mark Dane -- Tony Dane's brother -- is employed. Dorsey moved to Nevada three weeks ago and only remembered the conversation from 2000 when he saw Parks on the news.

Dorsey said he came forward with information about the conversation because he thought the incumbent David Parks was a good man who was being wronged.

"There's a lot of shenanigans going on here, and I don't think there's a good faith election going on," Gentile told Gibbons.

Gibbons ultimately decided Parks cannot remain on the ballot because he did not submit tax returns the judge requested; had no canceled checks to prove he paid rent; had no clothes at Harris' house and testified to living in Nevada 40 percent of the time.

"People can stir up elections all they want if they do it legally," Gibbons said. "That's what elections are about."