The outcome of 18th Legislative District candidate John Ley’s criminal trial, scheduled for Oct. 21, might have swayed voters before the Nov. 5 general election, but that trial date has been moved to Feb. 24.
Ley is facing felony voter fraud charges related to his previous unsuccessful run for the same state House seat in 2022.
The prosecuting attorney’s office filed criminal charges in November 2023 following an investigation by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. The charges are Class C felonies, punishable by a maximum fine of $10,000 or five years in jail.
Ley and his attorney, Angus Lee, appeared by video Friday for a pretrial hearing before Clark County Superior Court Judge John Fairgrieve.
Fairgrieve ruled against Lee’s motion to dismiss the warrant obtained by the sheriff’s office for Ley’s phone records, but he agreed to suppress the content of any text or voicemail messages sent to Ley’s phone during the investigation period.
Lee was also seeking to have Amanda Migchelbrink, senior deputy prosecutor, testify about legal counsel provided to county Auditor Greg Kimsey related to Ley’s 2022 voter registration challenge.
Approximately one month before filing to run in 2022, Ley changed the address on his voter registration from his Fremont Street home in Camas, which is in the 17th District, to a Battle Ground address in the 18th District.
Vancouver resident Carolyn Crain challenged his registration, claiming Ley still lived in his Camas home and not at his friend’s home as he said. During a June 2022 hearing conducted by Kimsey, Ley said he rented a room in the house for $1 a month.
Kimsey ruled Ley’s voter registration was invalid, but he did not rule on whether Ley was eligible to run for office. By the time of the hearing, Ley had again changed the address on his voter registration to the Hazel Dell apartment he currently lists.
Lee said Kimsey previously disclosed having some kind of conflict with Ley related to the registration challenge, and that conflict showed a clear bias against his client. Fairgrieve ruled against the motion for Migchelbrink to testify, saying there was not sufficient evidence to warrant waiving attorney-client privilege.
A similar challenge to Ley’s voter registration, filed by Democratic activist Geoffrey Munson on Sept. 16, was dismissed by Kimsey on Thursday.
Munson had claimed Ley was, again, still living in Camas. After reviewing the evidence and documents provided, Kimsey said Munson had not met the burden of evidence needed to determine Ley’s registration was not valid.
