Krolicki ruling gives prosecutor second corruption case loss

Las Vegas attorney Richard Wright is two for two against Chief Deputy Attorney General Conrad Hafen.

Wright successfully argued that the indictment against Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki was faulty and persuaded District Judge Valerie Adair to toss the case on that basis alone.

In 2005, Wright also went head to head against Hafen, who obtained a five-count felony indictment against former Las Vegas City Councilwoman Janet Moncrief. It was Hafen's first corruption case for a new Public Integrity Unit in the attorney general's office. The case involved charges that Moncrief failed to list expenses on her campaign finance reports when she unseated Michael McDonald in 2003.

Typically, campaign finance violations are settled with fines and a civil action. The case was negotiated down to a civil penalty after Wright argued that it was unfair to prosecute her for a crime and handle other campaign report miscreants (such as Assemblyman Chad Christensen) with civil penalties.

I don't mean to suggest Hafen doesn't win cases. He gets credit for nine guilty pleas in a welfare fraud case involving three employees of the state Welfare Division, six of their relatives and $40,000 in food stamps. Hafen successfully prosecuted Dr. Harriston Bass, likely the first time a Nevada doctor has been convicted of second-degree murder for dispensing prescription medications to a patient who later overdosed and died.

He is the lead prosecutor in the ACORN cases; plus he's handling the prosecution of College of Southern Nevada construction chief William "Bob" Gilbert and three subordinates on theft charges.

Despite suggestions by others that Hafen is an overzealous prosecutor, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto didn't try to lay blame at Hafen's feet when explaining why she wasn't appealing the Krolicki case. She was intimately involved in the Krolicki prosecution. She read and approved the indictment and still believes it was legal. Masto said she did a good job of monitoring the case.

But prosecuting the flood of mortgage fraud cases is a higher priority than pursuing Krolicki, according to Masto.

And she's right about that.

TV FACE TIME: Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki went to the Nevada Ethics Commission about using himself in advertising to promote the Nevada College Savings program.

Of course, he asked after the fact.

By the time he received the written opinion in March 2007, he had won his election for lieutenant governor.

The ethics commissioners, with one exception, approved Krolicki appearing in the ads. His office spent $1.5 million on advertising the program on television and in brochures and mailers. He stopped the TV ads before filing for lieutenant governor.

Of course, I agree with the dissenter, Commissioner Jim Kosinski. But I often march to a different drummer.

The majority opinion said state treasurers throughout the country regularly appear in ads promoting college savings programs.

The TV advertisements were a combination of public service announcements and paid ads. They started in late 2000 and stopped in March 2006, before the treasurer filed for the lieutenant governor's job. Direct mail pieces featuring Krolicki and promoting the plan were sent out in 2005 and 2006.

The majority of ethics commissioners said he received no "unwarranted privileges" from the $1.5 million in advertising and had a responsibility to promote the program.

Kosinski disagreed; so do I.

The duty to promote the savings plan didn't require using his mug in the ads and brochures.

"A public official should not be permitted to enhance his political career by using his image in advertising materials produced at the expense of, or under the authority of, government," Kosinski wrote.

Maybe the next Legislature might want to clarify this quandary, level the playing field and say it's wrong for all elected officials to use themselves in government ads. But they won't. Because everybody who can, seems to do it. Public service announcements featuring politicians are routine. Krolicki did what others do by appearing in ads.

I remain a minority with Kosinski in saying that even if it's legal, it doesn't pass the smell test.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 702- 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.