Group backing Weitzel gave to Davis challenger                                             AAPS website>>

Disclosure lists donations in attorney race

Mon, Aug 26, 2002

By LORETTA PARK
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau

FARMINGTON -- A doctors' group that publicly supported Robert Allen Weitzel made a $4,000 contribution to Russ Cline in his bid to unseat longtime Davis County Attorney Mel Wilson.

Because Cline lost in the primary election in June, he is required by law to turn in a financial campaign report to the county clerk's office 30 days after the election. Cline filed his report Aug. 9.

The $4,000 contribution came from the Association of Physicians and Surgeons, which publicly endorsed Weitzel last August. Davis County attorneys are prosecuting Weitzel on charges of negligent homicide and manslaughter in the deaths of five elderly patients at Davis Hospital and Medical Center.

In June, Dr. Jane Orient, a spokeswoman for the association, said a political action committee made the donation, not the association. Advertisements paid by the committee ran in several local newspapers, including the Standard-Examiner.

"I was aware they supported him (Weitzel)," Cline said.

Cline said the committee approached him and asked if it could contribute to his campaign.

Cline spent more than $25,000 out of his own pocket to campaign against incumbent Wilson, who was running for his fifth term.

The report shows that out of the $38,475 Cline received, the majority of that was from his own funds.

"I knew I could do a good job, and I had a good chance of winning. It was a fairly close race," said Cline, who donated $25,575.22 to his campaign. He lost the race by a 46 to 54 percent margin.

The second largest contributor to his campaign is the wife of one of his law partners. Jeanne Crippen donated $1,000 in April and then $5,000 in May.

Cline paid James DeMoux in Bountiful $1,000 to conduct a controversial police survey. The survey was mailed out at the end of May to law enforcement officers asking them questions about how the Davis County Attorney's Office could be improved.

Copyright ©2002, Ogden Publishing Corporation

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