Officials report more crimes in candidate's past
Republican says he is eligible to run
By JANE ANN MORRISON
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Republican Assembly candidate Richard Gardner's criminal past is more extensive than originally realized. His crimes include a theft conviction and three sex crimes instead of one, as previously reported.
Gardner on Tuesday continued to say he is eligible to run and serve despite a second legal opinion from the Clark County district attorney's office stating he is not eligible because of his status as a felon.
He said "it wasn't an intentional omission" that he failed to mention during a prior interview with the Review-Journal the theft conviction and the two other sex crimes.
Gardner said he does not think the issue should be the type of crime he committed but the legal question of whether he is entitled to run for office.
"At that time in my life, I was a pretty bad person," he said.
Gardner, 63, a semi-retired management consultant, is listed on the ballot as the Republican nominee trying to unseat Democratic Assemblywoman Ellen Koivisto. Independent American candidate Jim Barrier is the third choice in District 14.
On Oct. 1, county counsel Mary-Anne Miller advised Gardner that he was not eligible to run or serve if elected. She cited one felony conviction, which involved lewd and lascivious behavior with his daughter.
But more information emerged in a recent memo Miller sent to Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax.
The additional information obtained by the district attorney's office showed that on June 2, 1988, Gardner pleaded guilty in California to the following:
• Committing a lewd and lascivious act upon his daughter, who was about 12 when the crime was committed in May 1982.
• Committing oral copulation on the same daughter in January 1988.
• Child molestation in 1983 against another daughter under the age of 14.
He was placed on probation for the three charges.
Also, the memo said, "Police records reflect that in August 1981, Mr. Gardner was convicted of theft and confined in Chino State Prison from August 1981 until April 1982."
He was on probation for the next five years, Miller wrote.
Miller's memo said nothing was found in the records to show Gardner took any action to have his civil rights restored or have the convictions expunged.
She said under California law, a person found guilty of the sex crimes for which Gardner was convicted loses his right to vote permanently.
Gardner would have had to ask the governor of California for a pardon, she said.
In Nevada, to file for office without being a qualified elector is a felony, and the declaration that one is a qualified elector is filed under penalty of perjury.
Miller said prosecuting Gardner remains under consideration.
Gardner has said he never lost his rights under California law.
"If I have created a felony by being registered to vote, I challenge them to prosecute me rather than try me in the newspapers," Gardner said.
His conviction was uncovered because of a July traffic stop. He registered as a sex offender with Las Vegas police on Aug. 1.
In September, Las Vegas police sent their monthly list of felons to the Election Department. Election officials then discovered that Gardner was on the ballot, but it was too late to remove him.
If he were to win, the county would sue to invalidate his election and declare the office vacant, Miller said. The County Commission then would appoint someone to the seat.
He ran for Congress in 1998 and state Senate in 2000. The Clark County Republican Party donated $175 to Gardner's state Senate race against Democratic Sen. Ray Shaffer but donated nothing this year.
A check of the state and county Republican party Web sites Tuesday showed he is listed as part of the Republican team, and each page provides a direct link to Gardner through his e-mail address at dickycando@hotmail.com.
County party Chairman Steve Wark said Gardner's name should have been taken off the Web site because "he's not suitable to run for public office."
The party checks out those it recruits, Wark said, but the party does not check out every Republican who files, and Gardner was not one of the party's recruits.
"He should be in jail right now for those crimes; he's a disgrace to humanity," Wark said.
Koivisto had sent a political mailer based on the initial information that Gardner had pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious behavior. She said that despite coverage in the newspaper and television, voters in the district were unaware of his criminal past.
Koivisto represents a district that is heavily Democratic, but she said with low turnout expected she thought she had to use one of her five political mailers to tell people about Gardner's conviction.
Gardner told the Review-Journal that his conviction was based on his touching his daughter inappropriately. He said that he went to his church to seek counseling and that his bishop said by law they could not counsel him and advised him to turn himself in to authorities, which he said he did. "That's why I didn't go to prison," he said, and was put on probation.
The theft charge, he said, involved buying a gas tanker truck from someone who "never supplied me the documentation."
He denied that he was imprisoned at Chino State Prison and said that he was there for observation for 90 days
