Wednesday, March 22, 2006 | 7:10 a.m.
She wasn't exactly calm, cool and collected. But as shaky as she was, Clark County Recorder Fran Deane on Tuesday laid the blame for her troubles at the feet of two people - Monty Miller, the businessman authorities say she was in cahoots with to sell public documents, and County Manager Thom Reilly, who she says threatened to have her arrested if she returned to work.
In a relatively composed performance on "Face to Face" on Tuesday, Deane insisted that while she has contemplated resigning in the wake of a police probe, she is "not going to resign for something I did not do."
Deane, who is back at "work" despite not having control of the office or a computer, described the scene when police investigators arrived at her office a few weeks ago. The recorder said while the police were interviewing her, Reilly arrived.
"He excused the police and said, 'Fran Deane, I think you should hand over operational control to (her deputy) Charles Harvey and not interfere with the investigation,' " she said on the program.
Deane acknowledged she agreed to do so and assented to police requests not to use her computer or e-mail. But when Reilly sent her a letter supposedly memorializing what she had agreed to, including that she could not interact with her staff and should not go to work, she claimed to have been flabbergasted.
"We (Deane and Reilly) had three or four conversations that deteriorated to the point where he told me if I were to come back on to my floor, that he would have me immediately arrested and that (District Attorney) David Rogers (sic) would have charges filed against me in 21 days," Deane asserted on the program. "I would be removed from office ... He (Reilly) threatened to have me arrested, removed off my floor, which mitigated my ability to come to work."
Deane said after the taping that Reilly intimidates her and that he has called her a "f----ing bitch" to her face when he confronted her about staying on the job. She was noticeably agitated as she talked about it after the taping.
Reilly, who acknowledges asking Deane, an elected official, to step aside, has denied he threatened the recorder with arrest. He is scheduled to appear on the program today.
Deane also said on Tuesday's program that she wants to appear again today to confront Reilly on her version of events. I am happy to accommodate that desire. Roger told my producer, Dana Gentry, shortly after the taping Tuesday that he did not discuss any arrest of Deane with Reilly. But Roger said he is empowered to petition a judge to have an elected official removed for malfeasance but hopes not to use it.
When he was asked if he ever thought about using it, Roger said he did a few years ago after Deane took office and first tumbled into an ethical thicket by trying to partner with former Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren on a plan to sell public documents on the Internet - a similar transgression that she faces now, although Metro suspects her of selling documents.
On the program, Deane insisted that after having to pay a $5,000 fine to the state Ethics Commission two years ago, "I have sat in my chair on a second chance, honoring the voters of the County of Clark. ... I have never once stepped outside of my role as recorder to open a business, to participate in a business, to at all participate in any kind of business activity outside of the recorder's office."
Deane insisted she never removed any documents from her office and never entered into an agreement - with Miller or anyone else - to sell them on the Internet. Deane said she is "being used as a diversion" by Miller because of his problems with law enforcement. (We also are trying to get Miller on the program.)
Law enforcement sources have leaked information that Miller, who has been charged in an unrelated theft and elderly exploitation case, is cooperating with them and has alleged that Deane sold him documents. Showing a verbal creativity heretofore unseen, Deane said Miller is "playing a game of three-card monty ... essentially using deception and diversion to take the focus and the light off of the crimes he has truly committed and trying to get them to be focused on me."
Could that really be true? Deane's credibility is almost nonexistent because of her ethics problems and the caricature that has emerged of her. Perhaps the scariest aspect of this story is that Deane, who has been lampooned as an unstable, psychic-consulting paranoiac, could be telling the truth about some or all of this.
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