Trip OKd for Indicted Rohrabacher Aide

An aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher who faces three felony charges alleging campaign fraud will be allowed to travel to New Zealand with her boss, a judge ruled Wednesday.

“The congressman cannot run his office without staff,” Superior Court Judge David O. Carter said during a brief hearing. The aide, Rhonda J. Carmony, 25, “won’t be too hard to find anyplace in the world. Neither will Congressman Rohrabacher,” Carter said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Anderson had argued that the travel request amounted to special treatment for a defendant facing felony charges.

“No one else would have been afforded that activity,” Anderson said after the hearing.

The indictments filed last week accuse Carmony of participating in a GOP scheme to manipulate a Nov. 28 special election to favor Assemblyman Scott Baugh.

Rohrabacher, 49, said Wednesday night that he had invited Carmony months ago to accompany him and half a dozen associates to New Zealand for “some business and some surfing” during the congressional break for Easter.

Rohrabacher said he was invited to New Zealand by a private, nonprofit organization for a week of seminars and discussions. He added that Carmony was invited because “she’s fascinated by the free-enterprise philosophy” and because she has “been on several expeditions with me.”

Rohrabacher also said he plans to pay for Carmony’s travel, although the trip might be canceled now that Carmony is grappling with courtroom problems. “I’m still deciding,” Rohrabacher said. “I might just stay home.”

Carmony, along with Baugh and his chief of staff, Maureen Werft, were indicted by the Orange County Grand Jury on charges ranging from lying on campaign finance reports to filing bogus petitions to put a decoy Democratic candidate on the ballot. If convicted, Carmony could face up to three years and eight months in prison.

Carter also ruled Wednesday that Carmony may have contact with three people who have testified before the grand jury in the Baugh matter. She is allowed to make business and personal contacts with Rohrabacher’s campaign chairman, Jim Righeimer, and GOP campaign worker Justin Wallin, Carter ruled. Carmony also may attend political and business meetings also attended by Wendy Ward, Baugh’s girlfriend.

“They are part and parcel of the same political entity,” Carter said of Carmony’s relationships with Righeimer and Wallin.

Carter also ordered that Carmony’s booking photo remain sealed. Carmony and her associates had feared that the photo could become grist for political mailings.