Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004 | 11:11 a.m.
Former casino owner Bob Stupak paid a political consultant in cash and casino chips to help fund his then-girlfriend Janet Moncrief's successful 2003 campaign for Las Vegas City Council, according to a grand jury transcript.
"When some bills needed to be paid he'd call me over to a casino and sometimes pay me in cash, sometimes he'd pay me in chips," said consultant Tony Dane, who admitted to taking part of a series of dirty tricks during the campaign. The transcript of the Aug. 5 grand jury meeting that led to the indictment lays out testimony outlining dirty tricks and a failure to report tens of thousands of dollars in expenses and donations.
The transcript also contains testimony from former Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Miller, who said he was brought into the campaign at the request of Stupak, and was promised $25,000 by Moncrief. He said he never received the money.
Miller testified that Stupak was present during a chaotic scene at Stupak's house in which campaign workers realized, on deadline, that they had not properly filled out finance reports.
"I was very upset because I had advised Miss Moncrief and her operatives ... this is the most important part of the campaign, you could blow the whole campaign," Miller said.
"They're screaming what should we do, and I said you've got to turn it in, and they said well, we don't know what the numbers should be, and I came up with some lousy advice and that was put in anything, just turn it in and then amend it tomorrow." The reports, completed by Moncrief campaign aide Betty Schulte, were filled in during a hectic drive to file the reports downtown, Miller said.
He said the figures on the former were "based on numbers I picked out of the air."
Moncrief filed an amended report to flesh out the first one, and Miller said he gave her "not-so-good advice," suggesting she loan her campaign money to make up the difference between what she reported and what she had actually received to make the totals match. He said she did so.
Schulte, who previously worked for Stupak, and also worked for Moncrief briefly at City Hall, testified that Moncrief kept track of the donations. In addition, Schulte testified that she signed some campaign reports in Moncrief's name.
McDonald's campaign asked for an investigation into Moncrief's campaign spending after reports didn't seem to add up.
Jim Ferrence, Mcdonald's campaign manager, said Tuesday that although some of the testimony from Dane and Miller appear to corroborate his claims, "I go out of my way to avoid any confusion I might have anything to do with Tony Dane and Steve Miller."
Ferrence said that although he does not consider them credible, the fact that they testified under oath before a grand jury to the issues of misreporting the amount of money spent in the campaign lends some weight to their claims.
"They were total insiders to that campaign," Ferrence said. "They know everything that happened."
Moncrief, a first-term council member who campaigned on an image of political outsider, complete with a door-to-door campaign in her nursing scrubs, was indicted Aug. 5 on four counts of filing false campaign expense reports and one count of perjury. The false reports failed to include the value of "volunteer" work, a van loaned to the campaign, and amounts spent for misleading campaign fliers.
The charges include allegations that Moncrief did not report the value of teenagers' work, the contributions and/or expenses of Miller and Dane, the in-kind contribution represented by use of the van, and the cost of producing and distributing the fliers. Because she signed the reports "under declaration of penalty of perjury," Senior Deputy Attorney General Conrad Hafen argued to the grand jury that she also is guilty of perjury.
If convicted, Moncrief faces one to five years in prison and up to a $5,000 on each of the four counts of filing false campaign expense reports, and from one to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine on the perjury charge.
Moncrief declined to comment Tuesday, other than to say that "I'm innocent and I hope this moves forward quickly."
She is to be arraigned Sept. 8, when she has a chance to formally enter a plea. Her lawyer, Richard Wright, also declined to comment.
Stupak, the legendary gaming figure who has been in the shadows of the Moncrief story since last spring, when Dane and Miller turned against her, repeated what has become his standard "no comment" line -- "Have a nice day."
He declined to answer specific questions about whether he provided money and gaming chips to Dane, and what relationship he had with Moncrief.
He did add, "If I was a betting man, I bet she's 100 percent innocent." The transcript contains testimony from eight people, including:
Dane said in the case of the flier attacking Moncrief, "the idea was to hit yourself and to nullify the charges by showing how ridiculous they are."
He said that the flier used letterhead scanned in from a McDonald piece, as "a way of fooling the voters to think this was another Michael McDonald hit."
According to the transcripts, Moncrief's campaign spent more than $78,505.06 with Zignature International, a Las Vegas printing and mailing company, but only reported spending $20,875.
The transcript also lays out two mailings done for the Moncrief campaign that were made to look like they came from incumbent City Councilman Michael McDonald, who Moncrief was challenging. The fliers, made by California company J.C. Evans Communications, were designed to backfire on McDonald.
Dane paid for the two mailings that cost $8,795.12. The costs for the mailers didn't show upon Moncrief's campaign reports. Dane claims in testimony that he billed Moncrief for $100,000 in expenses but settled for less. Campaign finance reports show only $7,545 in payments to Dane.
Miller has said he was betrayed by Moncrief, who promised him a job in City Hall but then either would not or could not make it happen.
"I was hoping to replace Mr. McDonald's chief ward liaison, whose salary was in excess of $65,000 a year, so I was pretty excited. And having been offered to go back to City Hall without personally running for office is pretty neat for me. I'm damn good at what I do and I thought I would be good for her," Miller testified before the grand jury.
A juror asked him, "You never got that position, correct?"
Miller replied: "Disappointingly not."
Schulte, who was offered a job as Moncrief's liaison after the election, testified that she met Moncrief, who was with Stupak, in 2002 at the Bellagio. Schulte served for a brief time as Moncrief's liaison, a paid city position that serves as a sort of legislative aide. Each council member has two liaisons.
Schulte testified that she signed three of the campaign reports, making it look as though Moncrief had signed the reports. Schulte testified that Moncrief kept her own books, and in one case instructed Schulte to fill out the entire form and sign it.
"She had her own way of doing her bills, she went to her post office box, got all of the donations herself personally," Schulte testified. She said that when figures didn't add up, "I kept being told, don't worry about it ... the final report will have everything straightened out."
Schulte said that "I wasn't really paid until after she was in the office and then at the very end she gave me a check for $5,000, but it was no agreement that she was going to pay me anything. It was just, I was helping her out, I believed in what she was purporting to be and I wanted to help her get elected."
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