Carmony Asks Judge to Drop Felony Charges

Rhonda Carmony, the Republican aide accused of helping draft a decoy Democratic candidate in a special election in the 67th Assembly District last year, asked a judge Friday to drop the charges against her.

Carmony, campaign manager for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), is charged with three felonies for her alleged role in helping draft Laurie Campbell onto the ballot last October. GOP aides enlisted Campbell in the hope that she would siphon votes away from Democrat Linda Moulton-Patterson and boost Republican chances.

Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) captured the seat. His vote gave Republicans control of the Legislature’s lower house.

Carmony is one of several people, including Baugh, who have been indicted in the scheme. Three GOP aides have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges. And this week, Moulton-Patterson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of filing false nominating papers in the same race.

In court papers filed Friday, Carmony’s attorney, Creighton Laz, argued that there was insufficient evidence to bring the charges, that the indictment against Carmony was based on inadmissible testimony and that prosectors did not properly instruct the grand jury.

“The grand jury does not know what a crime is unless the district attorney tells them, and the D.A. did not tell them,” Laz said.

Laz also argued that the charges against Carmony should have been brought as misdemeanors, not felonies.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Guy Ormes said he had not seen Laz’s motion and could not comment on it.

According to the grand jury, Carmony recruited several Republican workers to gather signatures on nominating petitions that were filed with the registrar of voters over Campbell’s signature. The law requires that the petitions be signed by the person who 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.