Guinn, Augustine discuss her future

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2004 | 8:57 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn planned to meet with state Controller Kathy Augustine today to talk about her future after she admitted to three counts of willful violation of state ethics laws, setting in motion impeachment proceedings in the Legislature.

Augustine has said she does not intend to resign.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Brian Sandoval said Tuesday his office is still researching whether to pursue criminal charges against Augustine. He moved ahead first with the civil proceedings -- that resulted in Augustine's admission -- because it has a lower burden of proof, he said.

A criminal case would take months to process, he said. There is a big difference between "criminal intent and willful violation," which is the standard in the civil case, Sandoval said. Augustine, a Republican, admitted Sept. 22 to three counts that her office staff worked on her re-election campaign, and she was fined $15,000 by the state Ethics Commission.

Republicans, including Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Jim Gibbons, and Democrats have called for Augustine to resign.

The governor said Tuesday he would know by the end of the week what statement he would make. He said he has withheld making any comment to give Augustine time to think about the case.

Guinn has the authority to call a special session of the Legislature to begin impeachment proceedings against Augustine. If he does not, the Legislature could take up her impeachment when it convenes Feb. 7.

Augustine entered into the settlement with the Ethics Commission that admitted Jennifer Normington, her former executive assistant, worked on state time on campaign work, including maintaining campaign records, coordinating fund-raisers, designing campaign invitations and maintaining databases of campaign contributions.

The state's computer equipment was used for preparing and storing these documents.

Augustine, in her stipulation, said she violated the law in that she should have known that causing Normington to perform campaign work on state time was illegal.

Augustine, in her interviews with investigators of the attorney general's office, said Normington and others worked as volunteers in her campaign. She said Normington enjoyed working on the campaign.

The controller, now in her second term, conceded that former Assistant Controller Jeannine Coward worked on campaign speeches during work hours. But she stressed this work was voluntary.

No one was paid for the work, Augustine said, and the state did not pay overtime to the employees. She said no one was coerced, no one was forced and it was strictly voluntary.

Coward told investigators that if the campaign work didn't get done, the staff had to face an irate Augustine.

"There was kind of a joke about the 'Wrath of Kath' and I mean, she's a screamer and a yeller and a pounder on the desk and you know you tried to avoid any unpleasant situation with her," she said.

In her interview with investigators, Normington said she did not want to work late in the evening because she had a diabetic cat that had to get insulin shots twice a day, at 7 a.m. and at 7 p.m. Normington said she told the controller she had to get home to give the cat the insulin. She quoted Augustine as saying, "That cat's interfering with your life. You need to kill it."

Normington said she later got relatives and friends to take care her of her cat. She said that she had to attend every fund-raiser that Augustine had in Northern Nevada "and actually work it."

She told investigators that Augustine would get upset if she went out of town for such things as visiting her grandmother in Sacramento because then she couldn't work on the campaign.

When Augustine wanted things done for her campaign, Normington told investigators, the controller wanted them completed immediately. If state work had to be done, she had to stay after work to complete it.

Normington said she left the controller's office "because I couldn't take the emotional abuse -- verbal abuse."

She told the investigator, "I figured I was gonna die if I stayed there with the amount of stress that I was under in that office."