Candidate challenged over residency question

Molly Ball

Friday, July 30, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.

A Board of Regents candidate could be charged with a crime if prosecutors conclude that he does not live in the district in which he is running, but it is too late to take his name off the ballot, District Attorney David Roger said today.

An affidavit challenging Mark DeStefano's candidacy for the board's District 13 seat was filed Thursday, Roger said.

"We're looking into it to determine whether there's sufficient evidence to file criminal charges," Roger said.

But the deadline for claims seeking to remove candidates from the November ballot was June 1, said Clark County Counsel Mary-Anne Miller, the attorney for the Election Department. "Our ballots have already been printed," she said.

Miller passed the affidavit on to Roger's office for investigation. Knowingly and willfully making false statements in an election filing is considered perjury, a gross misdemeanor. A winning candidate found to have made false statements can also be removed from office.

The affidavit, a statement by one of DeStefano's neighbors in District 13, claims that he did not spend time in the Lee Canyon cabin he said was his residence but rather lived in his house in Queensridge, in District 7, Miller said.

"There wasn't enough in the complaint for me to go to court," Miller said. "I would need to further investigate," by interviewing other witnesses and DeStefano, she said.

Two legislative candidates were disqualified from the ballot last month when a judge found that they did not live in the districts in which they were running. To claim residency, candidates must really consider a place to be their home in addition to spending time there, but the law is vague in many ways.

State Senate candidate Todd Allen rented an apartment in District 11 three days before the deadline for establishing residency and never turned on the electricity. Assembly candidate Barbara DiMartini's house in District 29 was still being occupied by the previous owners.

But Miller said DeStefano's case was "a much more difficult question" because he has owned the cabin in question for several years.

"There isn't a law against owning two residences, and you can share time between them," she said.

To prosecute DeStefano criminally, prosecutors will face a higher burden of proof than necessary to dismiss his candidacy.

DeStefano is one of six running in District 13, making it the most contested of the five Board of Regents races. The incumbent is Tom Kirkpatrick. Only two people are running in District 7, including incumbent Steve Sisolak.

Most candidacy challenges are politically motivated, Miller said, but this one "would have been a lot more effective if they didn't miss the deadline."