DA won’t charge candidate

Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.

Clark County prosecutors will not pursue criminal charges against a Board of Regents candidate accused of not living in the district he is running in, District Attorney David Roger said.

Roger said the affidavit filed by one of Mark DeStefano's neighbors did not provide enough evidence to charge DeStefano with falsifying his residency in his candidacy declaration for the District 13 race.

"We didn't feel that there was enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that what he filed was false," Roger said.

DeStefano claimed a Lee Canyon cabin located on Via Mater Misercordi Street when he filed as a candidate for the higher education post, but the affidavit claims he still lives in the 9600 block of Royal Lamb Drive in District 7.

DeStefano says he owns both properties and splits his time between them. He said he would like to see Roger clear him in a formal, written statement as he believes the accusations against him are "100 percent politically motivated."

"I comply with the law," DeStefano said.

The news that there will be no criminal charges sought against DeStefano, however, did not end the residency debate, challengers said.

All five of DeStefano's fellow candidates plan to file a joint civil action to stop his candidacy later this week, regent hopeful James Dean Leavitt said Tuesday.

The candidates want a judge to rule on whether he meets the state's definition of a resident in District 13, and if he doesn't, they at least want to make sure DeStefano won't be able to get on the general election ballot if he makes it past the primary, Leavitt said.

"He thinks that somehow we are out to attack him, and nothing could be further from the truth," Leavitt said. "We want to know if he lives in the district, and if he doesn't he shouldn't be running."

Candidate Gloria Sturman agreed, adding that she never thought to question any of her competitor's candidacy.

"I just all assumed that they would follow the Constitution," Sturman said. "Who thinks to run a search on anybody in the race?"

It's already too late to remove DeStefano from the primary election ballot, Clark County election officials said, because the deadline for challenging candidates passed in June.

Larry Lomax, Clark County Registrar of Voters, said they only way to challenge DeStefano's candidacy at this stage is through private civil action.

"If they can get it before a judge, then it's whatever a judge says," Lomax said.

"If anything is going to happen it is going to have to be through the court system."

The primary election ballots are already printed and have been mailed to voters overseas, Lomax said.

It only takes a preponderance of the evidence that someone falsified his residency to remove someone from the ballot or to remove them from office, Roger said, but to press criminal charges the district attorney's office has to be able to show he willfully committed perjury by falsifying his candidacy declaration.

According to Clark County Assessor records, DeStefano only purchased the Lee Canyon cabin in March.

That's within the 30-day minimum required to establish residency by state statute, but close enough to the May 14 filing deadline that DeStefano's fellow candidates question whether he chose the cabin specifically to run against incumbent Regent Tom Kirkpatrick.

"Am I incensed about what he's done, absolutely," said Leavitt, whose friend, David Manzi, filed the initial complaint with the election office. "I think it was fraudulent.

"I think when he purchased his cabin I believe he viewed Tom Kirkpatrick as more vulnerable than (incumbent District 7 regent) Steve Sisolak," Leavitt continued. "Tom certainly took much of the heat on the open-meeting law violations, rightly or wrongly, and on (demoted Community College of Southern Nevada President Ron) Remington."

Sisolak has only one challenger, pediatric physician J.S. "Jack" Surpure, in his race. Kirkpatrick has five: DeStefano, who owns a consulting firm, attorneys Leavitt, Sturman and Matt Berkus, and tourism businessman Jim Germain.

DeStefano said he filed in District 13 because that is where he plans to remain. He is currently bidding on another home in the area.

"I got into this to be a Board of Regents," DeStefano said, "not to have my reputation attacked."