Court rejects Boggs bid

Former Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs might not have much money these days, but she doesn't qualify as an indigent defendant entitled to free representation.

At her arraignment Wednesday before Hearing Master Kevin Williams, Boggs' private and high-profile defense attorney, Bill Terry, announced that he was stepping down and that Boggs had opted to have the public defender's office represent her.

Assistant Deputy Public Defender Daren Richards then handed Williams a blue sheet with the details of Boggs' income and expenses.

After reading the document, Williams, a former public defender, said Boggs did not qualify and he could not justify the public expense.

"I understand that you may be upside-down on your income at the very moment, but I can't appoint a public defender for you," he told her, declining to disclose the details. "You're going to have to find other means to get ahold of an attorney."

Williams gave Boggs until Oct. 3 to find an attorney and warned that if she returned without one and forced him to appoint a public defender as a stalling tactic, he would charge her a hefty fine.

Boggs' finances are "definitely well above what it should be" to merit a public defender, Williams said.

Boggs was indicted last week on charges that she committed perjury and filed false documents relating to her failed bid for re-election in 2006.

Terry had said she planned to plead not guilty to the charges. He told Williams that he has been representing Boggs for free.

But Terry said Boggs has paid two other private attorneys for separate cases, indicating her divorce and previous legal troubles with local unions might be at least partly to blame for her penurious state.

The charges she faces stem from many hours of video, provided to police by the Culinary union and the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, that indicate Boggs was living at a home outside her district.

She also is accused of using campaign contributions to pay her baby sitter. Boggs has said she needed the sitter to attend campaign events.

Boggs, a Republican, had gotten on the wrong side of the Culinary union when she was a board member for Station Casinos, and she incurred the wrath of the police union when she challenged a labor contract that gave officers significant raises.

The two unions filed a lawsuit against Boggs over her residence last year. The suit was dismissed after she lost the election.

Her financial downfall has played out in the news media during the past year since her divorce.

Her former Summerlin home went into foreclosure after the mortgage went unpaid. She also received negative publicity after a controversial Arizona land deal.

In addition, after she lost the 2006 election, Boggs lost her $100,000-a-year position as a consultant with Keep Memory Alive, local liquor distributor Larry Ruvo's Alzheimer's foundation.

Williams told Boggs to re-evaluate her income to find money for an attorney, which some defense attorneys estimated Wednesday could cost six figures if she goes to trial.

Former Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, a Boggs colleague briefly in 2004, was granted indigent status for her public corruption case in federal court to obtain the services of well-known defense attorney Richard Wright.

Boggs declined to comment after Wednesday's hearing, as did Terry.

Review-Journal writer Adrienne Packer contributed to this report.