Gibbons must attend settlement conference

RENO " A federal court judge is scheduled to consider next week whether to strike any references to Gov. Jim Gibbons' pending divorce and shield him from giving testimony in a civil suit filed by a former administrator who claims she was improperly fired from the governor's office.

The court hearing comes after U.S. Magistrate Valerie Cook last week again rejected arguments that Gibbons and his budget director, Andrew Clinger, should be excused from attending a mediation session for the suit filed by fired staffer Mary Keating. Cook first made the ruling in January.

Keating, a certified public accountant and 25-year state employee, claims she was fired last May because the governor thought she leaked details of private text-messages he sent to another woman on a state phone.

Gibbons later apologized for the more than 800 text messages and reimbursed the state $130.

Deputy Attorney General Stephen Quinn had argued that Gibbons and Clinger were needed in Carson City to deal with the state's budget crisis and ongoing legislative session. He said the governor's counsel would have full authority to negotiate a settlement on their behalf.

He also argued that courts routinely excuse government officials from attending such proceedings, and cited as an example prison wardens typically named as defendants in prisoner lawsuits.

But Cook said those cases are different.

"Because these allegations suggest that the defendants had direct and personal involvement in the claims alleged in the complaint, their presence is required ... and a substitute will not do," Cook wrote in the March 20 order.

She set an April 10 deadline to schedule a settlement conference, from June 22 to July 10.

In addition to the allegations against Gibbons, Keating's suit alleges Clinger retaliated against her because she complained two years earlier of alleged "improper sexually oriented conduct" between Clinger and his wife on state grounds.

Lawyers for Gibbons in the attorney general's office deny Keating was fired over alleged leaks to the media. In court documents, they said she was dismissed and then transferred to another state job a month before a media request for the governor's cell phone records was received.

They said Keating was terminated because of "repeated rude and discourteous treatment of others ... over a period of several years preceding and during Clinger's tenure."

U.S. Magistrate Robert McQuaid on Tuesday will consider a request from Quinn to remover 21 lines from Keating's original complaint that refer to Gibbons' divorce from first lady Dawn Gibbons.

The references are "immaterial, impertinent and scandalous," and were made for the sole purpose of "harassing and embarrassing the governor," Quinn wrote in a court filing.

Keating's lawyers, Cal Dunlap and Monique Laxalt, argue that the content is relevant.

Dawn Gibbons, who is represented by Dunlap in the divorce proceedings, has accused the governor in documents of being involved with another woman.

References to those allegations show Gibbons had a motive to retaliate against Keating and that the issue of whether the governor was involved with other women "were legitimate and actual matters of public concern," Keating's lawyers said in court documents.

Gibbons' lawyers also are asking that he be precluded from giving a deposition, saying Keating must first show the evidence she seeks cannot be obtained through other sources and that it is essential to her case.