First lady holds onto role

CARSON CITY -- Dawn Gibbons will continue to perform all the functions befitting Nevada's first lady despite her pending divorce from Gov. Jim Gibbons, her lawyer said Monday.

"She doesn't believe that just because her husband is trying to divorce her that she should not be performing acts for the common good," said Reno lawyer Cal Dunlap, a former Washoe County district attorney.

Earlier Monday, Carson City District Judge Bill Maddox signed an order sealing most records in the divorce case and mandated that the divorce trial be conducted in private. For her part, though, the first lady did not want the records sealed or the divorce conducted in private, her attorney said.

"The first lady believes the public has a right to know about the affairs and activities of the first lady, as well as the governor," added Dunlap, who declined to elaborate.

The first lady has led the state's anti-methamphetamine effort and pushed for programs to help autistic children. Unless "ordered not to," Dawn Gibbons will continue in these and other duties expected of a first lady, her attorney said.

Her activity list and personal Web site, which includes pictures showing a loving first couple, still was up Monday on the state's Web site.

She did not respond to a call Monday or one over the weekend.

A source who has worked with Jim Gibbons, 63, said the governor would not object to Dawn Gibbons, 54, continuing to act as first lady while the divorce action proceeds.

Dunlap would not comment on a report from a friend of Dawn Gibbons that according to the first lady, Gov. Gibbons had changed the locks at the governor's mansion and put her clothing in a spare room.

The first lady did not learn until 9:30 p.m. Friday that her husband had filed for divorce earlier that day in District Court in Carson City, Dunlap said. She was vacationing with the couple's 20-year-old son, Jimmy, in California.

She since has returned to Nevada, Dunlap said. He said he did not know whether she was staying in the governor's mansion, in the couple's southwest Reno home or with friends.

In the divorce complaint, Jim Gibbons' attorney listed incompatibility as grounds for ending the couple's marriage of nearly 22 years.

In his ruling, Maddox said that neither the governor nor the first lady may cash out any insurance or retirement policies or sell or dispose of any property "except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life."

The divorce is the first involving a sitting Nevada governor, state Archivist Guy Rocha said.

Rocha said that former Govs. Robert List and Paul Laxalt were divorced after their terms as governor.

Two earlier governors, Tasker Oddie and C.C. Stevenson, had been divorced before becoming governor. Nevada has had 29 governors.

The Maddox order means that little might be made public beyond the four-page divorce complaint, the final judgment and any findings made by the court when the divorce is granted.

In making the ruling, Maddox cited a state law that allows one party in a divorce action to request the divorce be conducted in private and most documents filed with the case sealed.

Gov. Gibbons' spokesman Ben Kieckhefer and his lawyer, Gary Silverman of Reno, would not respond to questions Monday about the privacy order or new developments in the case.

Silverman said Friday that the governor wanted privacy in the case and that he, his staff and his lawyers would not be making further comments.

In a statement Friday, Silverman said the governor would request a court ruling on the living arrangements of the governor and first lady.

A state law specifies governors must reside in the seat of government, meaning Carson City. The law creating the governor's mansion stipulates it is the home of the "state executive," meaning the governor, and not the first lady.

Gov. Gibbons recently was living in the couple's Reno home, while conducting business meetings in the mansion. Dawn Gibbons was living in the mansion.

Dunlap said he and the first lady have not yet decided whether she voluntarily will move out of the mansion.

Although the Nevada Supreme Court sponsored a commission earlier this year that led to an order limiting the sealing of court records, its decision did not deal with Family Court matters, court spokesman Bill Gang said.

Family Court matters, such as divorce proceedings, are regulated by state law, Gang said.

Maddox cited two laws and a regulation that allow him to seal records and conduct the divorce in private.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.