Judge releases Boggs without bail

Former Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs has a new title -- defendant.

The once up-and-coming Republican politician stood silently before a judge Thursday morning to face charges of lying on her campaign paperwork about where she lived and about campaign payments to a baby sitter. The court hearing was the first in the case charging the 43-year-old with two felony counts each of perjury and filing a false document.

The documents were filed last year during her bid to keep her District F seat on the County Commission.

Wearing a black suit with red pinstripes, Boggs said nothing during the hearing as her lawyer, Bill Terry, argued for her release on her own recognizance. A warrant for arrest had been issued with bail set at $12,000 cash or a $120,000 surety bond.

"Certainly, there's no propensity to flee, and there is no danger to the community," said Terry, who pointed out that Boggs voluntarily returned from a trip to West Africa this week after the charges were filed.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterle agreed and granted the release, which allowed Boggs to leave jail after her booking without paying bail.

When she wasn't standing next to her lawyer, Boggs sat next to her mother, Janice Barber, who clutched a book titled "Give Us This Day." The trio walked together out of the courthouse after the short hearing and ignored the assembled media.

Boggs was scheduled to return to court Aug. 14 for a preliminary hearing.

Boggs was booked at the Clark County Detention Center on Thursday afternoon. She was fingerprinted and photographed before being released about 4:35 p.m.

The charges center on a pair of election documents Boggs submitted during last year's campaign against Democrat Susan Brager.

In her declaration of candidacy, Boggs said she lived at 6386 Grays River Court, which sits inside the commission district in the southwest part of the valley. But authorities believe she lived at 3646 Dutch Valley Drive, a larger house just outside the district.

Boggs also was charged with lying about campaign payments she made to a baby sitter for her two children. Boggs listed the $1,230 in payments as campaign expenses related to special events.

Two labor unions, the Las Vegas Police Protective Association and the Culinary union, first raised the allegations against Boggs in a lawsuit challenging her candidacy. They hired a private investigator, who videotaped Boggs doing everyday activities at the house outside her district.

The video footage helped Brager cruise to an election upset.

Charles Kelly, a defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, said Boggs' defeat at the polls "made her vulnerable to a prosecution like this. She's already been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion."

Boggs would have a "very big uphill battle" in beating the charges about her residency because of the video and testimony from her former assistant about setting up a paper trail to make it look as if Boggs lived in her district, he said.

"The tapes pretty much speak for themselves," Kelly said. "This community will long remember this commissioner in her driveway, in her pink bathrobe, dragging a trash can behind her."

The baby-sitting charges might be easier to beat, he said.

"There is some gray area about what constitutes a campaign expenditure," Kelly said.

A 2002 state attorney general's opinion prohibits campaign funds for personal uses if those personal uses would still exist if the official was not in office or campaigning.

Boggs has said she hired the baby sitter so that she could attend election events.

Kelly said Boggs' lawyer would probably try to negotiate a plea agreement in the case, although she probably wouldn't avoid a felony conviction. Even with such a conviction, Boggs would likely receive probation and community service instead of a sentence in one of the state's overcrowded prisons.