Monday, April 7, 2003 | 9:43 a.m.
The owner of a North Las Vegas motorcycle club was indicted Friday on voter fraud charges, alleging he filed fraudulent ballots in the Assembly District 37 election.
The document, unsealed Friday before District Judge Kathy Hardcastle, charges Gary Lee Horrocks, 49, with 62 criminal counts, which include multiple charges of violation of the law governing elections, fraud, conspiracy and burglary.
The 51-page document alleges Horrocks filed fraudulent documents when he cast absentee ballots for Assemblyman Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas.
Conklin, who was victorious over Republican Francis Allen for the district in northwest Las Vegas, denies being involved in any fraudulent voting procedures. He won the election by 134 votes.
Horrocks declined to comment Friday. He said he would like to tell his side of the story but was instructed by his attorney, Dominic Gentile, not to talk to the media.
Gentile was expected to meet with Horrocks to discuss the case this morning. Gentile said his client's innocence will be proven.
"Gary is a proud man and an honest man and he didn't break any laws here," he said. "This indictment reads like science fiction."
Prosecutors chose to indict Horrocks instead of having a preliminary hearing because even they were unsure of whether Horrocks committed a crime, Gentile said.
"This case is a classic example of a grand jury being used as a tool by the district attorney's office," he said. "Anytime you have to allege as many as four different alternative theories as to what happened, it means you don't know what happened."
Clark County prosecutors say the case is the first case in their jurisdiction to be prosecuted under the election violation law since 1987.
"This is the first time election laws in Clark County have been used since then," Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent said. "There's not even a charging code for this in our computer system."
Horrocks, owner of the Clubhouse Tavern and an unsuccessful Republican candidate in the district, faces one to four years in prison on each of the 28 election violation charges, a felony. The charges are probationable.
He faces one to four years in prison for each of the 31 counts of forgery. The single burglary charge carries a one- to 10-year prison sentence.
The document names Horrocks' wife, Pam Horrocks, as an unindicted co-conspirator.
A summons was issued for Horrocks to appear April 23 for arraignment before District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.
Allen said the charges send a clear message to citizens that cheating is not allowed.
"I do feel vindicated," she said.
The indictment came after an investigation by prosecutors that began when Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, initially brought 21 names of voters with fraudulent addresses to the district attorney's office in November.
"It vindicated my case that this wasn't frivolous as was suggested at the legislative session," Beers said.
Beers said he has known Horrocks for four years and he hopes the charges aren't true.
"We'll let the process take its course and see what Horrocks has to say."
Chief Deputy District Attorney James Sweetin, who presented the indictment, would not comment on whether more people could be charged.
Sweetin said the charges reflect documents filed with the election department with fraudulent addresses for at least 10 voters.
While many ballots listed the address of Horrocks' bar, other addresses were listed as mailing addresses as well, he said.
At least two of those 10 individuals never voted, but voting documents are filed in their name, he said.
"Somebody voted, but it wasn't the voter," Sweetin said.
The burglary charge came under a state statute that constitutes burglary as entering any building or room with the intent to commit a felony.
"Anytime you have to take a law like burglary, which everyone has a clear understanding of, and stretch it to apply to this, it's clear you don't know what happened," Gentile said.
Sweetin said the motivation behind Horrocks' scheme was clear.
"He is accused of manipulating voting documents filed so that individual voters who were ordinarily not able to vote in Assembly 37 would be able to," he said.
Prosecutors decided against an arrest warrant because Horrocks was not a flight risk and had significant ties to the community, Sweetin said.
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