More trouble on horizon for Boggs?

Jeff German and Tony Cook

Wednesday, June 6, 2007 | 7:09 a.m.

The state's criminal investigation into former Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs has widened to include the unusual circumstances surrounding her purchase of a high-priced automobile last year.

Jerry Hafen, deputy chief of the Nevada Investigations Division, confirmed Tuesday that his agency is continuing the probe, which this week produced four felony charges against Boggs. But he would not discuss specifics.

Sources close to the investigation, however, said state agents are looking at the Jan. 31, 2006, purchase of the 2006 Volvo XC90 to determine whether Boggs bought the car on her own or received an undeclared gift to do so.

The sport utility vehicle was bought from Volvo of Las Vegas for $43,558, but details surrounding the purchase are murky, sources said.

Nick Konopka, general manager of the Volvo dealership, said Tuesday that within the past several weeks, the dealership had received a request from authorities for all information related to Boggs' purchase .

"She did purchase it in her own name," Konopka said. He declined to say whether she paid cash or used a loan .

Agents also are investigating a $5,000 political contribution that Boggs received in December from a prominent local cardiologist that did not show up on a required campaign finance report in January.

Late Monday Clark County District Attorney David Roger, at the request of the Investigations Division, filed a four-count complaint against Boggs stemming from allegations that she misrepresented payments to her children's nanny and falsified documents to make it appear she lived in her district when she did not.

Boggs was said to be returning from a trip to Africa on behalf of FaithWorks - a nonprofit Christian ministry she founded after losing a reelection bid in November - and had planned to surrender to authorities at the Clark County Detention Center on her return. As of late Tuesday she had not turned herself in, authorities said.

Her lawyer, William Terry, would not talk to reporters Tuesday about the criminal charges or his client's whereabouts.

Before she left for Africa on May 24, Boggs posted a 51-second video on YouTube.com telling followers she was preparing to meet with FaithWorks board members and other missionaries in Ghana.

The criminal complaint filed Monday against Boggs charges her with two counts of filing false records and two counts of perjury. The two counts of filing false records each carries a prison term of one to five years, and each of the perjury charges carries a one- to four-year penalty.

State investigators say when Boggs ran for reelection last year, she filed forms indicating she lived at an address in her commission district. In reality, investigators say, her campaign assistant, Linda Ferris, rented the house. Boggs paid her $400 a month from a personal bank account to "establish a paper trail," investigators say Ferris told them. Ferris told investigators she would cash the checks and return the money to Boggs.

The former commissioner also is accused of lying when she claimed on campaign finance reports that she paid nanny Kelly McCleod $1,230.52 from "Friends for Lynette" and listed the expenditure as related to special events. McCleod told state agents she babysat Boggs' children but never worked for the campaign.

The residency case against Boggs was aided by a private investigator hired by two influential labor organizations, the Culinary Union and Las Vegas Police Protective Association, which worked to defeat her last year. For six weeks during the campaign, private detective David Groover videotaped Boggs living at a house outside her district.

Boggs received the $5,000 contribution in question from Dr. Raj Chanderraj within days of her vote last Dec. 20 to award a controversial University Medical Center contract to the Nevada Heart & Vascular Center, where Chanderraj is a partner.

She did not disclose the donation on a Jan. 16 campaign finance report she filed with the Nevada secretary of state's office.

She later told attorneys for Chanderraj that she didn't report the contribution because she didn't cash the check until after the first of the year, the cutoff point for the reporting period covered in the document.

But one of Chanderraj's attorneys, Stan Parry, said the check appeared to have been cashed Dec. 26. If so, Boggs was obligated to report the contribution on the Jan. 16 filing.

Parry says the donation's proximity to the cardiology contract vote was coincidence. Chanderraj had promised to donate to Boggs' campaign earlier in the election cycle, but never got around to it, he said.

Boggs listed the $5,000 donation on an amended campaign report in April.