Oregon Ping
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Posted on 09/08/2005 3:32:07 PM PDT by DuckFan4ever
Doyle, a Salem Republican, will be charged with 11 counts of filing a false campaign finance report.
Former state Rep. Dan Doyle said Wednesday he will plead guilty to filing false campaign finance reports, an offense carrying a possible prison term.
Attorney General Hardy Myers' office announced that Doyle, a Salem Republican, will be charged with 11 counts of filing a false campaign finance report. He is to be arraigned Friday in Marion County Circuit Court.
Myers' spokesman Kevin Neely said the offense is a felony carrying a maximum prison sentence of five years and fine of up to $125,000 on each count. Neely also said Doyle's wife, Victoria Doyle, would be charged with one count of filing a false campaign report in connection with her unsuccessful candidacy last year for Marion County clerk.
Doyle's wife also is to be arraigned Friday.
A former lawyer, Doyle held the powerful post of co-chairman of the Legislature's budget committee when he resigned from the House on Jan. 31 as a probe widened into his alleged reporting irregularities.
Campaign service vendors to whom Doyle reported paying campaign funds indicated that he overstated the spending by about $60,000.
Doyle said the charges involved report filed in 2002 and 2004. "I did in fact file 11 reports over those years that were false. When I appear in court on Friday, I intend to plead guilty as charged," he said.
He made the statement through his lawyer, Greg Chaimov of Portland. Doyle when on to say that he filed false campaign funding reports to cover up that he was diverting campaign money to personal use.
He said he had allowed "legislative and campaign responsibilities to take up virtually all my time" following the 2001 legislative session and that those moves "all but eliminated my income from the practice of law."
"I was too proud to disclose my financial shortcomings, so I falsified my campaign reports to conceal the fact that I was paying my law firm and supporting my family with campaign contributions," Doyle said.
"I misled the public. Our campaign finance laws rely on openness, and I violated that principle. I am profoundly sorry," he said.
He said while he had agreed to plead guilty and be punished with criminal penalties, "the only thing the attorney general's office and I have been unable to agree about is what that sanction should be. We have therefore agreed that a judge should decide that."
As an outgrowth of the Doyle case, the 2005 Legislature tightened restrictions on use of campaign funds and raised the maximum penalty from $75 to $1,000 for the civil offense of making personal use of campaign money.
Jerk.
Compare and contrast... this to Hillary's campaign finance trials, past and future. Go Peter Paul!
Let me guess...He wants to stay in power?
Oregon Ping
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Aw, man! I was hoping this would be about Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle.
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