GOP Aides in Election Probe Given Chance to Offer Deals

At least five campaign or staff aides to Orange County Republican legislators have been invited to make plea-bargain proposals to the district attorney’s office, which is investigating alleged wrongdoing in last year’s 67th Assembly District recall and replacement elections, according to attorneys for several of those people.

The invitations to negotiate a settlement of their clients’ potential criminal liability were made this week by Deputy Dist. Atty. John Anderson, who is leading the investigation, the lawyers said.

Anderson contacted attorneys for Rhonda Carmony, campaign manager for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach); Mark Denny, a staff aide to Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove); Jeff Gibson, campaign manager for the recall; Jeff Flint, Pringle’s deputy chief of staff and the recall’s political consultant; and Richard Martin, who worked in Scott Baugh’s Assembly campaign. Carmony also worked in the Baugh and recall campaigns.

All the GOP aides were allegedly involved in a plan hatched by Republicans last summer to recruit Democrat Laurie Campbell in an effort to siphon votes from a popular Democratic candidate in the winner-take-all contest on Nov. 28.

“I talked to the district attorney today [Friday] and made an offer,” said one attorney who declined to discuss what his proposal might be. All the attorneys interviewed spoke on the condition that their names would not be used.

“The [deputy] district attorney, John Anderson, called a bunch of us [this week] and told us if we were interested we could approach them and make a proposal for settling,” said another lawyer. “They did not make any offers. They did not say they were interested in settling the case.”

Assistant Dist. Atty. John Conley declined to confirm the reports or discuss who is a target of the investigation, which began in October.

Anderson declined to comment.

Campbell was removed from the ballot in late October by a Sacramento judge who found she had filed falsified nomination papers. The investigation expanded in November to include campaign finance irregularities in Baugh’s successful campaign for the 67th Assembly district seat.

The current Orange County Grand Jury began hearing testimony in the case in mid-February. Campbell was one of the early witnesses, appearing before the grand jurors Feb. 13. At least one witness testified before the grand jury Friday.

Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), Pringle and Rohrabacher have all denied having any role in Campbell’s candidacy, and no direct evidence has emerged publicly to demonstrate their involvement.

The overtures to the five aides indicates at least one phase of investigation into wrongdoing in the 67th Assembly race is nearing completion. Carmony declined to comment, referring calls to her attorney. Denny, Flint, Gibson and Martin did not return phone calls.

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It could not be determined Friday whether Campbell was approached with a similar offer. The defense lawyers were apparently surprised at the approach from the district attorney and at the progress of the investigation.

“They are further along than I had thought they were,” said one.

One lawyer said the invitation from the prosecutors gives the aides several options: forcing the district attorney to prove the allegations; discussing with prosecutors alternatives that could range from apologies, to pleading guilty, to offering to testify; or doing nothing.

“Anderson explained to me, in essence, they were trying to extend a courtesy,” said one attorney. “He was not making any representation on what they were doing, or where the grand jury was going, or when the grand jury was going to do what they were going to do.”

“I have no idea what our response will be,” he said.

One attorney said it appears that “the boat is leaving the dock and this is an invitation to jump in the water and see how fast you can swim to catch up” before the grand jury moves ahead.

Campbell entered the 67th District race Sept. 21, the last day to file papers at the county Registrar of Voters office. Campbell had picked up nominating petitions a day earlier but did not circulate them herself, according to some two dozen voters who signed her papers on those two days.

Instead, the petitions were brought to these voters by several unidentified men between 20 and 35 years of age, they said. Campbell signed the petitions and claimed under penalty of perjury that she had collected all 43 signatures herself.

While it is not a crime for a Republican to recruit a Democrat to run for office, it is a felony to falsely complete any part of a nomination paper or to knowingly file a falsified nominating petition. Penalties can include a $1,000 fine and imprisonment for as long as three years.

Pringle has acknowledged that his staffer, Denny, was involved in gathering signatures for Campbell’s nominating petitions. Rohrabacher has said that his campaign manager, Carmony--who at the time was also working in the Baugh and recall campaigns--was “peripherally” involved in recruiting Campbell.

GOP leaders have said that they were interested in recruiting a second Democrat in the contest.

One source has described a meeting among Campbell, Martin, Denny, Gibson and Carmony in the parking lot of the registrar’s office on the afternoon of Sept. 21, a short time before Campbell filed as a candidate. It was there that Campbell was given the petitions to sign, according to this source and Jeff Butler, who worked on the recall and Baugh campaigns.

The source said Martin arrived to deliver signatures he had gathered that afternoon at a post office in Huntington Beach. Flint allegedly gave instructions to Gibson that Campbell should sign the petitions because Flint believed that a Republican could not circulate them, Butler has said.

Flint has vigorously denied those allegations.