Iowa: Casino-related probe attorney fees top $90,000

Casino-related probe attorney fees top $90,000
By ROD BOSHART, Globe Des Moines Bureau


DES MOINES — The cost of probing allegations of improper contributions to Gov. Chet Culver’s re-election campaign from Fort Dodge casino interests has risen to more than $92,000.

The Iowa Executive Council has approved payments of nearly $92,421 to special prosecutor Lawrence Scalise, a West Des Moines lawyer and former Iowa attorney general, and another attorney, Richard McConville, to look into allegations that casino backers passed money through a third party to the Culver campaign. That according to Julie Pottorff, an Iowa deputy attorney general who handles invoices for outside counsel and payment of legal costs for the council.

The Iowa Executive Council — a five-member panel made up of the governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and secretary of agriculture — hired Scalise last year at a negotiated rate of $80 an hour as a special prosecutor to look into the allegations after Attorney General Tom Miller concluded his office had an appearance of a conflict of interest because Donn Stanley moved from being a division head there to managing the Culver-Judge re-election campaign.

The state Division of Criminal Investigation probed donations from the three Fort Dodge businessmen who reportedly gave $25,000 to the Culver campaign in fall 2009 after they had received $25,000 from Peninsula Gaming. The company and businessmen were partners in an effort to get a casino license in Fort Dodge.

In October 2010, Scalise filed charges in Polk County District Court against Peninsula Gaming Partners LLC, Webster County Entertainment LLC, Peninsula executives Martin Brent Stevens and Jonathan Swain, Webster executive Steve Daniel and Curtis Beason, a Davenport lawyer, alleging they violated the state’s campaign disclosure law.

Those charged were accused of donating money to Culver’s campaign in the name of another person, which is illegal in Iowa. All denied any wrongdoing and entered not guilty pleas.

Earlier this year, charges were dismissed against Stevens and Swain while Beason and Daniel are slated to stand trial Oct. 10 on misdemeanor charges.

Last July, officials with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board announced they had reached a settlement with Peninsula Gaming LLC over allegations that the company illegally made contributions in the name of another person and didn’t report them. In the settlement, Peninsula Gaming agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $4,000, which was the maximum penalty the board could impose in this case.