Wolfson: Weak case, not politics, lead to pass on perjury charge

Did politics come into play when it came time to decide if criminal charges were in order for Meghan Anne Smith, a Democrat who tried last fall to run for the Legislature in a district where she was ineligible to be a candidate?

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, a Democrat, says no — though his office took a pass while the state’s new Republican attorney general pursued the case.

The Las Vegas police criminal intelligence unit first presented their case to Wolfson, who decided that he could not prove a crime even though a judge had already ruled that Smith “willfully filed a declaration knowing that the declaration of candidacy or acceptance of candidacy contained a false statement.”

“We reviewed the case,” Wolfson said Thursday. “We determined that we didn’t feel we could prove this crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Metro investigators then took their findings to Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who won election last fall.

After what Laxalt called a “fresh examination of the evidence,” the attorney general decided there was enough evidence to take the case to a Clark County grand jury, which agreed and quickly returned the indictment.

News of the rare criminal charge against a would-be lawmaker broke around noon Wednesday. About four hours later, the Clark County Republican Party said Wolfson and former Attorney General Catherine Cortez-Masto, also a Democrat, “are blinded to wrongdoing by partisan politics and took no action to enforce the law.”

Wolfson on Thursday denied that his party affiliation impacted his decision.

“It has nothing to do with politics,” Wolfson said. “It’s politics schmolotics, whoever accuses me of that.”

Laxalt said he pursued the charge to protect “the sanctity of fair and transparent elections,” adding that “every violation of the electoral process erodes the public’s trust in its government.”

Victoria Seaman, who won the seat in a Republican wave in Nevada, had challenged Smith’s candidacy based on state residency requirements. A Republican Party complaint in August cited Clark County assessor’s office records purporting to show that Smith resided in Assembly District 42 as of March 7, 2014. Smith filed for the office a week later.

Under state law, a candidate must live in a district for 30 days before filing for office.

Smith said she lived in District 34 even before she closed on a northwest valley condominium.

“I’ve lived in Nevada since 2003 and have spent more than five years in the Summerlin area in and around Assembly District 34,” Smith wrote in an email to the Review-Journal on Thursday. She declined to comment on the specifics of the criminal case, “though I can tell you this: The charges brought against me are an unfortunate waste of tax payer dollars, bearing no purpose other than political theater … I do hope you are as eager to report on my case when I am exonerated.”

The felony indictment alleges Smith made false statements in a declaration of residency form filed on March 14, 2014. Perjury is a category D felony, which carries a possible sentence of one to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Despite her candidacy being ruled ineligible, Smith’s name still appeared on the ballot. She lost, in any event, taking just 44 percent of the vote. The District 34 seat was wide open as Assembly Majority Leader William Horne, a Democrat, was term-limited out of office.

Smith’s ineligibility alone would not necessarily have prevented her from taking office. In 2012, a district judge ruled that Democrat Andrew Martin was ineligible because of lack of residency, but he went on to win the election and was welcomed by the Democrat-controlled Assembly.

On Tuesday, the same day the grand jury met to indict Smith, a bill designed to strengthen residency requirements for candidates passed on a party-line vote in the Assembly, with Democrats unanimously voting against the bill, according to a news release from the Clark County Republican Party.

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker