Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004 | 8:48 a.m.
The animosity between candidates for university system regent was palpable Tuesday inside and outside a court hearing over the residency of hopeful Mark DeStefano.
District Judge Lee Gates put off until Tuesday a ruling on a lawsuit filed by three of the five candidates for District 13 to challenge DeStefano's residency. That leaves DeStefano safely on the ballot through this weekend's early voting but also leaves the cloud of the lawsuit hanging over him.
Tension rose in the courtroom shortly after 9 a.m., when one of the challengers, 42-year-old James Dean Leavitt, accused a man sitting with DeStefano of calling candidate Matthew Berkus a profanity. Leavitt told him that if the name-calling continued, he would tell the bailiff that a witness was being threatened. The man, who did not give his name, mocked Leavitt and then confronted him face to face briefly before sitting down.
Later, in the hallway outside the courtroom, DeStefano, 43, asked Leavitt for one of the campaign fliers he was holding and then complained that he had not received one in the mail.
"Well, my mailers don't go to Queensridge (in District 7)" Leavitt said as he handed DeStefano a mailer.
"I don't receive my mail there, so I don't know what you are talking about," DeStefano said.
A few minutes later DeStefano interrupted a conversation between Leavitt and candidate Jim Germain to bid them goodbye, and Leavitt told DeStefano that his friend was "out of line" in the courtroom.
DeStefano's attorney, Harold Gewerter, had argued in court Tuesday that the three candidates do not have the right to challenge DeStefano's residency at this point in the race and urged Gates to dismiss the lawsuit.
Gewerter said the lawsuit was "procedurally defective" because it was filed too late. State law limits the window of time for filing a challenge to a candidate's legitimacy through the election office to five days from the time the filing period closes.
Gewerter, however, did not address whether DeStefano's District 13 residency is legitimate and did not respond to the original complaint.
Frank Cremen, the lawyer for Leavitt, Germain and Berkus, said his clients remain entitled to relief under state law and that they did not learn of DeStefano's questionable candidacy until after the deadline. The candidates allege in their lawsuit that DeStefano actually lives at a home in District 7 and not at the Lee Canyon cabin he owns in District 13.
They want Gates to rule on whether DeStefano meets the state's residency requirements and, if the judge finds DeStefano doesn't, the other candidates want all votes cast for DeStefano invalidated.
Leavitt and DeStefano did agree on at least a couple of things.
On Tuesday they each apologized to Las Vegas fireman Scott Phillips for his forced role in the residency feud. Phillips lives next door to DeStefano's cabin in Lee Canyon, and said he was called to testify that he has seen him at the home only once, several months ago.
Phillips said he was invited to a Fourth of July party DeStefano was throwing that he could not attend, and then "never saw him since."
DeStefano and Leavitt also said during a televised debate Monday on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston" that they want the judge to hurry up and rule so the candidates can focus on the issues of higher education.
Moments before the hallway exchange with Leavitt, DeStefano had said he didn't "think the university system needs this divisive behavior."
"I think the university system needs someone who can build consensus," he said.
Leavitt has repeatedly said he wished DeStefano's residency had not become an issue in the race, and that he too wants to help the board improve its image and promote the good work that the higher education system is doing for Nevadans.
On Ralston's television show, Leavitt reiterated his belief that DeStefano forced the other candidates to challenge his residency when he filed to be a candidate in District 13.
That debate among most of the candidates in the District 13 regent race -- DeStefano and Leavitt along with incumbent Tom Kirkpatrick and fellow challengers Germain and Gloria Sturman -- is scheduled to be replayed at 8 p.m. Saturday and 10:30 a.m. Sunday on Las Vegas ONE, Cox channel 19.
During the forum the candidates also discussed the open-meeting law, the Millennium Scholarship, the university's role in economic development and transferring units among institutions.
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