Baugh to Appear in Court on Tuesday

Two years after being elected to the Legislature, Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) faces a preliminary hearing Tuesday on allegations that he purposely misreported tens of thousands of dollars in contributions and loans from that campaign.

Baugh is charged with five felony perjury counts and 13 misdemeanor violations of the Campaign Reform Act for allegedly falsifying five campaign and officeholder financial disclosure forms.

Baugh, who represents coastal Orange County, has maintained his innocence. He is due to appear at 11 a.m. before Municipal Judge William L. Evans. The preliminary hearing will determine whether Baugh will stand trial.

The 1995 special recall election in the 67th Assembly District was infamous, resulting in convictions or pending criminal charges against two candidates and five campaign workers, including Baugh.

It was also a crucial election for Republicans who were intent on ousting renegade GOP Assemblywoman Doris Allen for siding with Democrats to block the Republican majority from controlling the Assembly.

Most of the wrongdoing in the campaign concerned a GOP ploy to place a decoy Democratic candidate, Laurie Campbell, on the ballot to split the Democratic vote and ensure Baugh’s victory.

In the case against Baugh, prosecutors allege the former corporate attorney lied on campaign disclosure statements to conceal a $1,000 campaign contribution from Campbell and hide his longtime friendship with her. Three GOP aides pleaded guilty to misdemeanors last year for their role in the scheme to get Campbell on the ballot. Another faces trial in December.

Baugh has maintained he played no role in getting Campbell to run.

In addition to the charges stemming from the Campbell contribution, prosecutors allege that Baugh deliberately misreported the dates he paid back $27,000 in loans to inflate the balance in his campaign account. They also allege that Baugh did not report $11,000 in campaign loans, depositing these checks instead in his personal checking account so he could cover campaign costs paid from that personal account.

They also allege he improperly used cash in his campaign, including accepting $8,800 from a friend as well as repaying Campbell $1,000 in cash in an attempt to erase the record of that contribution.

Baugh did not return phone calls seeking his comment. Allan Stokke, his attorney, declined Friday to discuss the case.

In maintaining his innocence, Baugh has blamed his campaign treasurer, Dan Traxler, for the errors. Baugh has said Traxler gave him bad advice and then lied about it to the grand jury that indicted Baugh in March 1995. Baugh has maintained that he unwittingly signed or authorized the signing of reports that contained the mistakes and omissions.

Baugh has charged Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, also a Republican, with targeting him to enhance his own political reputation. Baugh’s legal team sought repeatedly to have Capizzi and the entire Orange County district attorney’s office removed from the case. Numerous state courts, including the Supreme Court, have declined to do so.

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Prosecutors have had their setbacks, as well.

Superior Court Judge James Smith last September dismissed the bulk of the original indictment against Baugh. Smith ruled that prosecutors had withheld critical evidence about Traxler’s truthfulness when the campaign treasurer appeared before the grand jury. The judge also criticized prosecutors for acting too zealously before the grand jury.

Prosecutors last October refiled many of the charges without returning to the grand jury.

For the case to proceed to trial in Superior Court, prosecutors will have to persuade Judge Evans that there is probable cause that Baugh broke the law.

Capizzi has been sharply criticized by some conservative Republican leaders--in particular Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and GOP State Chairman Michael Schroeder--for prosecuting Baugh and the GOP aides linked to the Campbell affair.

Other county GOP leaders do not support Capizzi’s in his bid to run for state attorney general in 1998 and also are opposed to the candidacies of any Capizzi assistant who chooses to run for his office.

One of those indicted in the series of cases is Rhonda Carmony, Rohrabacher’s wife and longtime campaign director. Rohrabacher also helped launch Baugh’s political career and directed Carmony to help in his Assembly campaign.

Carmony is charged with three felonies for her alleged role in placing Campbell on the ballot. A jury narrowly failed to convict her in June and she faces retrial in December.