Baugh Launches Counterattack on Witness, D.A.

HUNTINGTON BEACH â€”  Indicted Assemblyman Scott Baugh went on the offensive Thursday, releasing a 51-page attack on the credibility of his former campaign treasurer, a key witness in the prosecutors’ campaign wrongdoing case against the freshman legislator.

The Republican from Huntington Beach, who also was interviewed on a cable television program, accused the Orange County district attorney’s office of having “deliberately withheld exonerating evidence from the grand jury.�

“Without question, [former Baugh campaign treasurer Dan] Traxler lied at every available opportunity and blamed the circumstances . . . on Baugh,� Baugh said in the document.

Thursday, on Orange County NewsChannel, Baugh elaborated: “I think my [former] campaign treasurer’s own words hang himself. We’ve got documented well over 100 [instances] where he lied to the grand jury. But in addition, we have other witnesses who contradict what he’s saying.

“So in addition to my word, there are other people around the campaign who know what happened, and it fundamentally contradicts Mr. Traxler’s testimony.�

Assistant Dist. Atty. John Conley strongly denied the contention that his office hid evidence from the grand jury. “We are going to be disputing that vigorously in court,� he said.

Traxler, who resigned as Baugh’s campaign treasurer in December, would not comment. “I feel it is very inappropriate for me to make any comment with legal action pending,� he said.

Conley noted that prosecutors have always considered Traxler a problematic witness.

“The grand jury was aware he [Traxler] had admitted to lying to D.A. investigators initially,� he said. “We told them that, and indicated that Traxler had initially maintained the party line [for the Baugh campaign]. The grand jury nevertheless believed him and indicted.�

Baugh blames Traxler for contradictory and often confusing statements and bits of testimony that range from the misreporting of campaign donations to the improper recording of contributions in the campaign checkbook to whether it was dark the night a controversial $1,000 donation was returned.

Baugh’s allegations are a partial reprise of legal motions filed late last month by his attorneys asking Superior Court Judge James L. Smith to dismiss the indictment against him because, they contended, the district attorney acted improperly.

Baugh faces trial Aug. 26 on four felony and 18 misdemeanor charges of allegedly concealing or misreporting tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds during his successful campaign last November to succeed Cypress Republican Doris Allen, who was recalled the same day.

Baugh’s attack on Traxler is based on more than 450 pages of transcripts of taped interviews between Traxler and district attorney’s investigators from November 1995 and March 1996 as well as transcripts of at least two phone conversations between Baugh and Traxler taped in January and February by investigators.

The transcripts were given to Baugh as part of the pretrial discovery process.

It was impossible to verify the accuracy of Baugh’s claims because he did not make the tapes or transcripts available Thursday. The transcripts are not public record and the district attorney’s office is not required to release them.

Baugh contends the transcripts show that Traxler told prosecutors a very different story than the one he told the grand jury. According to Baugh, Traxler told contradictory stories dozens of times to investigators, the grand jury, to Baugh and others in the campaign. Traxler is also an “unindicted co-conspirator� in the Baugh case, Conley said.

But even if a jury agrees that Traxler’s credibility is suspect, Baugh still must explain numerous charges that do not involve his former treasurer.

“A majority of the counts are not dependent on Traxler,� Conley said. “Fourteen of 22 are not dependent in the least on Traxler, including one of the felonies. For some of the others, he may just be icing on the cake.�

Central to some of the most serious charges against Baugh are allegations that he helped recruit one of his friends to run as a Democratic spoiler in the special election that Baugh captured. The goal of that ploy was to siphon votes from the only other Democrat in what was then a six-way contest to replace Allen.

Before the decoy Democrat, Laurie Campbell, entered the race, she and her husband contributed $1,000 to the Baugh campaign. Prosecutors allege that in order to hide Baugh’s relationship with Campbell, Baugh and Traxler misreported the contribution three times on campaign finance statements signed under penalty of perjury.

Traxler maintains he hid the contribution and also obtained $1,000 in cash to repay the Campbells at Baugh’s direction. Baugh maintains that Traxler concealed the donation after incorrectly advising Baugh that Baugh could return the money in cash and not report it. The use of cash in amounts above $100 is barred in California campaigns.

Other criminal charges involve Baugh’s alleged failure to report thousands of dollars in loans, the forward dating of tens of thousands in loan repayments to make it appear as if the campaign had a larger bankroll, the acceptance of $8,800 in cash and perjury on Baugh’s personal statement of economic interest.

Numerous pages of Baugh’s analysis are devoted to the $1,000 contribution Baugh received from the Campbells. For example, the analysis says Traxler lied when he testified before the grand jury that Baugh asked him to get cash to return to Rick Campbell.

“It’s still not clear in my mind,� the analysis quotes Traxler as telling investigators immediately prior to his appearance before the grand jury on March 1. “I would like to be [100% sure] but I’m not.�

This confusion in Traxler’s mind, Baugh contends, “occurs two hours before Traxler testified.�

None of Traxler’s uncertainty over who told him to get cash to repay Campbell was disclosed to the grand jury, according to Baugh’s analysis.

“Traxler obviously has a problem with honesty,� Baugh wrote in the analysis. He noted that in a subsequent telephone call between Traxler and Baugh that was tape-recorded by investigators, Traxler is quoted as saying: “I just can’t seem to get it straight. You know? It’s like, it’s like I’m blocking it out maybe. Maybe I need some therapy or something.�