Gibbons’ divorce details opposed

RENO -- Gov. Jim Gibbons wants a federal judge to strike references to his divorce in a lawsuit filed by a former state worker seeking reinstatement to her job, saying the "scandalous" references are irrelevant and were included solely to harass and embarrass him.

State lawyers representing Gibbons and his budget director Andrew Clinger filed the motion on Friday in the case brought by Mary Keating, who lost her job as administrative services officer in mid-May.

Keating claims she was fired because the governor thought she leaked details about his private text-messaging on a state phone. She is suing Gibbons and Clinger for unspecified damages and reinstatement to the post where she oversaw, among other things, the governor's office expenditures.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Senior Deputy Attorney General Stephen Quinn filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Reno.

The 21 lines they want deleted from Keating's complaint include references to the governor's repeated denial of any involvement with other women, claiming the couple had "merely grown apart."

They included allegations of "persistent rumors and discussion" of Gibbons' "involvement with women other than his wife Dawn, one of who was later identified as ... a local doctor's wife."

The lawsuit alleges one of Keating's employees told her in May 2007 that Gibbons used his state cell phone to send more than 860 personal text messages. Keating then told her boss, Clinger.