DENVER – An administrative law judge on Thursday repeatedly scolded the director of a campaign-finance watchdog group for alleging perjury in a case stemming from Matt Sheldon’s successful bid last year for the Durango School District 9-R board.
Matt Arnold – who filed the case as director of Campaign Integrity Watchdog, though he is not an attorney – has taken issue with whether Sheldon legally accepted contributions.
Sheldon, 29, failed to file a campaign committee before accepting contributions for the unpaid school board position. Under campaign-finance rules, a committee must be filed before accepting contributions.
Sheldon has largely defended the error as a simple mistake. After he learned of the violation, he quickly remedied the situation.
Arnold, however, believes Sheldon committed perjury in testifying that it was an oversight. He pointed out that Sheldon signed an official document at the time of registering his candidacy that stated candidates “may not accept any contributions prior to registering a candidate committee.”
To support his accusation, Arnold suggested that Sheldon is familiar with campaign law, having served as Democrat Mike McLachlan’s designated filing agent for his unsuccessful 2014 re-election bid. McLachlan was fined $2,660 last year for accepting three contributions from limited liability corporations in Colorado without reporting the names and addresses of all LLC members, or describing how the contributions were to be attributed to the LLC members.
“Rather than simply accepting responsibility for his multiple violations, he not only attempted to deceive the electorate ... but he continued and expanded his attempts to deceive by making multiple material false statements in signed affirmations to a public servant and in testimony under oath before this court,” Arnold said.
The campaign-finance watchdog director has a reputation in Colorado as a conservative rabble-rouser, though he has targeted both Democrats and Republicans, which he says has left him on rocky ground with both parties.
Administrative Law Judge Tanya T. Light was at times livid with Arnold for heading down the road of a criminal proceeding in an administrative courtroom.
She repeatedly framed Arnold’s comments and questions as being accusatory and speculative, suggesting that had Arnold been a licensed attorney, she would have reported his behavior to licensing authorities.
Light also was worried about Arnold’s comments in The Durango Herald, suggesting that it is a disservice to the Durango community to portray the matter as a criminal case.
“I don’t want to hear anything else about perjury or any criminal act. There has been no evidence in this case that any DA is looking into this at all from a criminal standpoint,” Light admonished Arnold.
Light asked to review Arnold’s questions to determine which would be appropriate for him to ask Sheldon, who attended the hearing via phone.
Light said the move was “highly unorthodox,” but she felt it would save time. As she looked over questions, Light laughed to herself and shook her head. “He’s not guilty. He’s either committed a violation of a civil situation or he hasn’t,” Light told Arnold later in the proceedings.
Arnold asked that the court order Sheldon to pay $10,200 in statutory fines stemming from two claims and to order Sheldon to return campaign contributions taken before the committee was registered.
Light said she would issue a decision in the coming days.
For his part, Sheldon said: “Looking back on it, we definitely made a mistake, but I wasn’t aware of the mistake.”
One of Sheldon’s two attorneys, Lori Potter with the Denver-based firm Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell, said Sheldon was mortified when he learned of the error, calling his mother to calm him down.
Potter added that Sheldon has been punished by media reports and attention in Durango.
“This is not exactly the actions of a sinister lawbreaker,” she said.
Arnold retorted: “Grown-ups are held accountable for their actions. Grown-ups do not cry to mommy when they make a mistake.”
pmarcus@durangoherald.com
