Monday, Nov. 29, 2004 | 11:01 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Controller Kathy Augustine is not well liked by her employees and is guilty of "misguided judgment" in using state workers in her re-election campaign, but that is not enough to toss her out of office, her lawyers say.
Augustine's impeachment proceeding -- the first in the history of the state -- starts today in the Nevada Senate. Senators must decide if she is guilty of malfeasance in office. It takes a two-thirds vote to make such a ruling.
Dominic Gentile, a Las Vegas lawyer representing Augustine, who is the first woman ever elected controller of the state, said her actions "were inappropriate in so far as she allowed some of her employees to work on her re-election campaign during state time and that she failed to stop them from using state equipment to do campaign work."
He said, "Her actions constituted minor transgressions that fall far short of a legitimate basis to impeach her and remove her from the office to which the electorate appointed her."
The Assembly on Nov. 12 delivered articles of impeachment to the Senate that said Augustine should have known that her workers performed campaign chores on state time; that the state computer was improperly used; and that telephone and fax machines were also used in her efforts to win a second term in 2002.
Gentile and fellow defense lawyers filed their objections to the charges Friday with Claire J. Clift, secretary of the Senate, who will deliver them to the senators when they convene to hear Augustine's plea.
The defense attorneys say the charges are duplicates and special prosecutor Dan Greco of the Washoe County district attorney's office should make a choice on which one he wants to proceed with or dismiss.
Gentile says the prosecution must prove there was malfeasance or malpractice in office. To do so, he said, Greco must show Augustine's conduct deviated from the norm of other public officials. This practice of using government workers in campaigns goes on at all levels of government, according to the lawyer.
"Malfeasance in office cannot be proven unless and until it is established that Kathy Augustine's challenged actions run contrary to the established practice and custom of similarly situated elected officials," Gentile said.
He said the defense must "be permitted to present both experts and lay witnesses and any relevant documentary evidence that sheds light on whether or not the allegations against her are commonplace and generally accepted through the relevant government sectors."
The objections to the impeachment articles said, "The only reason her misguided actions have gotten her to the stage of the first impeachment trial in the state of Nevada is because three former extremely biased employees (Jennifer Normington, Jeannine Coward and Jim Wells) who were prone to hyperbole and gross exaggeration, got together and somehow convinced the powers that be within the attorney general's office that their mean (expletive) boss should be made an example of for doing something that goes on at every level of government during an election year and particularly where the candidate is already holding office."
Augustine, a Republican and the first state official ever to be impeached in Nevada, will make a personal appearance today to enter a plea. She did not attend the sessions in the Assembly, saying there was no need to. Her attorneys represented her there.
Normington, a secretary for Augustine, testified in the Assembly that 75 percent of her time was spent doing campaign work in the 2002 election. Coward, a top aide, allegedly wrote campaign speeches for Augustine. Wells, the chief deputy, said he refused to do campaign work but saw others working on the re-election effort during working hours. He said he confronted Augustine about it but she never did anything to stop it.
The three major witnesses no longer work in the controller's office.
Gentile said the testimony of the three are filled with "absolutely irrelevant and highly inflammatory statements about how demanding of a boss Kathy was."
The testimony to the Assembly included statements that she was abusive to her employees, had a bad temper, threw papers at her workers when she was mad and that the workers referred to her temper as the "wrath of Kath."
Gentile said, "It was a well known fact that Kathy was not well liked by her employees and by fellow government officials. Kathy speaks her mind about all issues pertaining to the duties of the controller's office and she often took sides of an issue that were unpopular to say the least.
"She can be a stern, short-tempered, and highly demanding boss and elected official. Nevertheless she has always maintained the integrity of the office to which she was elected."
Besides Gentile, the objections were signed by attorneys John Arrascada, Kathleen Janssen, William Garnage, Paola Armeni and Charles Lombino.
Normington and Coward, when they left the office after the 2002 election, turned over documents to the state attorney general's office that conducted a year-long investigation. It filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission that levied a $15,000 fine -- the largest ever imposed by the commission -- against Augustine for the three violations of using employees and equipment of the state during the election.
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