Las Vegas NowMoncrief Speaks With Eyewitness News

Moncrief Speaks With Eyewitness News

(Aug. 18) -- Las Vegas City Councilwoman Janet Moncrief is facing criminal indictment for campaign finance fraud. Wednesday night she broke her silence.

Moncrief says she has done nothing wrong. State prosecutors disagree. Now we have more insight into the case against Janet Moncrief, including the role casino insider Bob Stupak played in Moncrief's campaign.

That insight comes in the form of 150 pages of grand jury testimony obtained by Eyewitness News. In it, state prosecutors outline their case by interviewing people close to Moncrief's campaign. If the testimony is on the up and up, it shows a concerted effort by Moncrief's campaign to spent a lot of money -- but only report a fraction of it.

Councilwoman Janet Moncrief rebukes the grand jury indictment and is ready for a fight. "Absolutely. I'm innocent. I didn't do anything wrong and I want this case to move forward," Moncrief stated. 

On August 6, a Clark County Grand Jury indicted Moncrief on five counts of filing false campaign finance reports during last year's city council election. The grand jury testimony includes invoices billed to Moncrief by Zignature International in the amount of $78,505 for campaign fliers. On her campaign finance report, Moncrief reports paying Zignature a "total" of almost $28,000.

A teenage campaign volunteer testified she and 27 friends were paid almost $5 an hour, by Moncrief to campaign door-to-door. Those total payments do not appear anywhere in Moncrief's campaign finance report.

"There were lies and fictious fliers. They were sending fliers out underneath my headlines. Those were lies," said Michael McDonald. McDonald lost last year's city council race to Moncrief, alleging she was behind a smear campaign against him. He may be right.

State prosecutors say Moncrief paid almost $8,800 to California based JC Evans Communications to print up misleading fliers on McDonald's campaign letterhead. Moncrief's campaign manager Tony Dane says it was done to fool voters.

Another staffer, former city councilman Steve Miller, told Moncrief it was dishonest and says her response was "nobody will know." The money spent on the phony fliers wasn't reported. Neither were some campaign contributions by casino insider Bob Stupak. Dane told the grand jury whenever a bill needed paying "it came from Bob Stupak actually handing me the cash".

"I'm not quitting and I'm very happy serving my constituents and the majority of them are very happy with me." Moncrief says she'll fight the allegations with attorney Richard Wright at her side -- the same attorney representing Michael McDonald.

"Well it's a difficult process for everybody. The councilwoman is afforded her due process and will have her day in court. It's what Jim Ferrence and myself said all along was happening," Wright said.

Everything we outlined is just part of what this testimony includes. Moncrief campaign staffer Steve Miller says Moncrief promised him $25,000 and a position on her city staff if she won the election. She won, but Miller says he was never paid and never given a position.

Steve Miller also says he was asked by Bob Stupak to file one of Moncrief's campaign finance reports on April 1 of last year -- the day it was due. Miller says he didn't have the proper numbers in place, so he made them up.

Wednesday afternoon Eyewitness News spoke with Bob Stupak about the Moncrief indictment. He told us quote "If I was a betting man I'd bet you (she's) 100-percent innocent" unquote.