Wednesday, July 7, 2004 | 11:01 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Attorney General Brian Sandoval said today he is prepared to file criminal and ethics charges against state Controller Kathy Augustine for allegedly using her office staff for political campaign work.
If the allegations are found to be true, they could lead to Augustine's removal from office.
Sandoval said his office is ready to bring a felony charge of misconduct in office against Augustine in the district court in Carson City. And his office is prepared to file a complaint with the state Ethics Commission.
Sandoval said Augustine had not responded to a letter from his office in the time he asked her to respond. He said he had a meeting set today with Augustine's lawyer, John Arrascada of Reno.
Gerald Gardner, chief deputy attorney general who is handling the case, said today the complaint would be filed with the ethics commission regardless of the outcome of the meeting with Arrascada. Criminal charges could then be filed, depending on the outcome of the meeting, he said.
A felony conviction would mean removal from office, he said. If the ethics commission found Augustine willfully violated the law, the matter must be referred to the state Assembly to decide whether Augustine should be impeached. If she were impeached, she would be tried in the Senate and could be removed from office, according to the law.
Augustine could not be reached for comment today. But she has denied there was anything criminal involved in the case.
She previously told the Sun that she had asked a staff member to do campaign work but said she asked her to do it on her own time.
A complaint against Augustine was filed with Sandoval's office early in 2003 by her former secretary Jennifer Normington, alleging that 2002 re-election campaign work was done on state time.
Normington would not comment, citing orders from the attorney general's office.
Asked why it has taken so long to conduct the investigation, Sandoval said his office had to talk to other employees, and he said it took an extended period to examine the computer records in the controller's office.
"We wanted to be very thorough," he said.
Augustine said she would not resign and said she expected to take "the ethics hit."
Augustine has said she believed that she would have to be found guilty of three violations before the ethics commission before she could be removed from office.
However a spokeswoman for the ethics commission said it only takes one violation that is found to be willful by a constitutional officer or a member of the Legislature to make that person eligible for impeachment.
The law says "a public officer or employee shall not use governmental time, property, equipment or other facility to benefit his personal or financial interest." But the law does not prohibit the use of "mailing lists, computer data or other information lawfully obtained from a governmental agency, which is available to members of the general public for nongovernmental purpose."
The allegations are that Augustine required several of her employees to work on her campaign during state time.
Augustine, a Republican from Las Vegas, is in her second and last term, which expires in January 2007. She has been rumored to be interested in running for Congress or lieutenant governor.
She served in the Assembly in 1993 and in the state Senate in 1995 and 1997 before being elected controller in 1998.
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