What the Indictments Charge

SCOTT BAUGH

Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) was indicted Friday by the Orange County Grand Jury on four felony counts of perjury, and for 18 misdemeanor violations of the Political Reform Act during his election campaign.

One of the perjury charges involves Baugh’s getting his former campaign treasurer, Dan Traxler, to lie about the source of a $1,000 cash donation.

The grand jury charges that Baugh, who was elected to replace former Assembly Speaker Doris Allen (R-Cypress) on the same day Allen was recalled, took steps to illegally conceal a $1,000 campaign contribution from the husband of Laurie Campbell, a Democrat recruited by Republicans to undermine the possibility that candidate Linda Moulton-Patterson, a well-known Huntington Beach Democrat, would win the election to replace Allen.

Baugh is also accused of illegally accepting $8,800 in cash contributions, and then concealing details of this and other financial transactions on the periodic campaign spending reports he was required by law to file.

If convicted, Baugh faces up to seven years in state prison on the perjury charges, and fines of $10,000 or more on any of the misdemeanor charges, which could also result in his being barred from elective office for four years.

RHONDA J. CARMONY

Carmony, a Republican activist and campaign manager for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), was indicted for illegal actions she is accused of taking while orchestrating the scheme to put a Democrat on the ballot in the special election to replace ex-Speaker Allen.

According to the grand jury, Carmony recruited several Republican workers to circulate petitions that candidate Laurie Campbell legally was supposed to circulate herself. Once they had enough signatures, Carmony personally filled in some missing information that could have disqualified the petitions, and then got Campbell to sign a sworn statement that Campbell had gathered the signatures.

For these acts, Carmony was charged with fraudulently making and filing nomination papers for Campbell, as well as conspiring with other “unknown” persons to commit election fraud.

If convicted, Carmony faces up to three years, eight months in prison and a $2,000 fine.

MAUREEN WERFT

Werft, an unsuccessful 1994 candidate for the Huntington Beach City Council who is presently Baugh’s chief of staff, was indicted on two felony counts of perjury for fraudulently voting in last November’s election.

The grand jury said that Werft registered to vote, applied for an absentee ballot and returned it, attesting each time that she in a Huntington Beach precinct within Allen’s Assembly district--”knowing that she was not a resident of [that] election precinct, the 67th Assembly District and Orange County” at the time.

If convicted, Werft could be sentenced to a maximum term of four years and eight months in state prison.