Clark County Recorder Frances Deane sold 32 years worth of real estate documents for thousands of dollars and used the cash to pay her bills and purchase a plasma television, according to an arrest warrant issued Tuesday.
Deane was charged with 19 felony counts that include misconduct of a public officer, fraudulent appropriation of property, theft and unlawful commissions, personal profit and compensation of public officers, according to a criminal complaint.
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On Tuesday afternoon, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Karen Bennett-Haron set Deane's bail at $20,000, about $37,000 less than the amount prosecutors had requested.
Bennett-Haron gave Deane until Friday to post bail or surrender to authorities.
District Attorney David Roger, who was present at Tuesday's hearing, said his office will hold off on arresting Deane until Friday. After that, Roger said, "all bets are off."
"Any time a public official uses their powers to violate the trust of the public it's a serious matter," Roger said. "The public is entitled to see that law enforcement officers investigate these matters."
The Metropolitan Police Department's eight-month investigation is ongoing and Deane as well as "a number of" business owners could be charged with additional crimes, said Deputy Chief Mike McClary. He declined to elaborate.
According to a police report released Tuesday, Deane pocketed at least $44,000 from the sales of county-owned documents and never reported an additional $10,000 in campaign contributions. According to local title agents, title companies pay $1.5 million to gain access to the information Deane sold.
Deane did not appear in court. She is on medical leave from the county until Aug. 11 because of an undisclosed surgery.
Reached on her cell phone about 11 a.m. Tuesday, Deane said she was unaware she faced felony charges. The recorder explained that she was recuperating from a major surgery.
"I just got unhospitalized," she said.
She then said "I have to go," and hung up.
At least two businessmen, American Document Co. owner Monty Miller and California business owner Joseph Gekko, told police they paid Deane cash for documents that amounted to one terabyte -- or about 60 million pages -- of information, according to the police report. Both men are cooperating with authorities.
Reached on his cell phone Tuesday afternoon, Miller declined to discuss his role in the investigation.
Gekko told detectives that he agreed to pay $100,000 for the "vault" of documents, but fearing he would be "burned," he paid Deane in installments. "Gekko said that he was uncomfortable conducting business this way as he knew that the money was going directly to Deane rather than the County, but he felt that the records were very valuable," the police report states.
On two occasions, Gekko planted $8,000 cash in stuffed lions that were delivered to Deane.
But according to the report, Deane's most lucrative relationship was with Miller, a local Republican activist.
The two met during a 2002 Republican fundraiser as Deane was campaigning for county recorder, a position that pays $91,137 a year. During their discussion Deane asked if Miller was interested in starting a "title plant."
Miller contributed $10,000 cash to Deane, but the money never appeared on her campaign donation reports.
In June 2005, Deane sold Miller compact discs that held the documents, but they found the information stored in the office was far too great to transfer to discs. Miller then purchased a one terabyte drive that could hold the mass of information.
In early July 2005, Deane directed her technology staff to download all digitalized documents and images from the recorder's computer system onto the drive for Miller.
Departmental Systems Administrators Sid Rabin told detectives that he was so stunned at Deane's request, he asked her to repeat herself. Rabin estimated the cost of the documents to be more than $35,000. When he told Miller of the cost, Miller called Deane, according to the report.
The two reached a compromise when Deane agreed to allow Miller to simply download the information from the terabyte drive to his own computer.
"Deane told him that she was moving into a new condominium and that for him to bring her $10,000 cash to her new place over the weekend," the police report says. Miller told police that Deane indicated she had purchased a plasma television from RC Willey using some of the money, the report states.
Police recovered a receipt for a cash purchase on Sept. 3, 2005, and video showing Deane paying $2,902.49 at the RC Willey store in Henderson, according to the report.
Miller told detectives that he and Deane agreed to share proceeds from further sales of the public records. A Golden, Colo., company, National Title Records, paid Miller $95,000 for the documents, according to the police report. It is unclear whether Deane received any of that money.
"It would be a bargain to get this for $100,000," said Southwest Title Co.'s Denise Bray, a title agent for 30 years.
Images of titles recorded in Deane's office are copied and maintained in a "title plant" operated by Clark County Title Services. That company is jointly owned by all Las Vegas title companies, each of which pays $1.5 million to become a shareholder with full access to the decades' worth of title records.
Employees in the Recorder's Office grew suspicious of their boss when technical workers spent three weeks transferring information onto the computer drive that was placed in Deane's office.
Charles Harvey, assistant recorder, checked nightly to ensure the drive remained in a credenza in Deane's office. In August 2005, Harvey said Deane arrived at work with an empty knapsack and when she left it appeared to be heavy. The drive was gone.
On Tuesday, Harvey said the charges against Deane are a "disappointment" and "disheartening."
"Everyone anticipated this day would come," Harvey said. "Either the charges would be dropped or this would happen. I don't think this will have an impact on our office."
Under state law, Deane is permitted to return to office until she is convicted. However, Roger said if she returns to her job, his office would consider filing a malfeasance complaint and beginning the process to remove her from her position.
"I don't plan on exercising that option right now, but we will monitor it," the district attorney said.
This isn't the first time Deane has landed in trouble. In 2004, the Nevada Ethics Commission fined Deane $5,000 for a willful violation of state ethics codes. The violation stemmed from a plan to start an Internet company and sell to the public recorded documents that could be obtained free from Deane's office.
The criminal complaint against Deane comes five weeks after former Clark County commissioners Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey were convicted of political corruption charges stemming from allegations they accepted bribes from strip club owner Michael Galardi.
Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said Tuesday that the handful of elected officials who've been accused of wrongdoing are the minority. "I think the overwhelming majority that work at the county are good hard-working individuals," Reilly said. "It's a shame that there are a few individuals who have abused their offices."
Reilly added that the charges against Deane did not come as a surprise to other administrators in the Clark County Government Center.
"We've had concerns with that office for a long period of time," said Reilly, who does not have the authority to remove Deane from office but has lobbied to have the position become an appointed rather than elected office.
"The indictment seems to validate a lot of the concerns we had," Reilly said.
Review-Journal staff writer Mike Kalil contributed to this report.
