Ethics hearing in Assembly race rescheduled

Monday, Sept. 16, 2002 | 10:57 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- The state Ethics Commission has set Sept. 27 for a hearing in Las Vegas on the complaint of Assembly candidate Earlene Forsythe against her opponent Francis Allen in District 37 in Clark County.

The commission started a teleconferenced hearing Friday between Reno and Henderson. But audio difficulties forced the cancellation of the hearing. Testimony from Henderson was inaudible in Reno.

The new hearing will be 9 a.m. at the Sawyer State Office Building. No teleconferencing will be provided for the rescheduled meeting.

Forsythe, who lost by nine votes, has filed a complaint charging that Allen distributed defamatory and false campaign fliers about her and her husband, Dr. James Forsythe.

Allen has denied the allegation.

Forsythe said the fliers and campaign telephone calls suggested that Dr. Forsythe was a "quack," that she and her husband overcharged cancer and dying patients and that the couple operated a ring of cancer clinics that use alternative medicine on desperately ill people.

Forsythe says these allegations are false and showed malice.

Forsythe said the Nevada Republican Liberty Caucus was involved in the defamatory campaign.