Special House counsel Mel McDonald is checking to see if Corporation Commission Jim Irvin attempted to commit fraud during a federal court civil case.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 11-0 on Sept. 12 to approve an order compelling Michael Anthony, a lawyer, to answer questions about discussions he had with Carol Irvin, Mr. Irvin’s wife, regarding documents she created for use as evidence.

The documents were withdrawn when they were about to be subjected to forensic checks.

At the Sept. 12 meeting, Mr. McDonald told committee members, “If this was only related to Mrs. Irvin, I would not be wasting your time.”

Mr. McDonald is conducting an investigation into whether the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against Mr. Irvin. Mr. McDonald says he plans to have a report prepared by the end of the month.

Rep. Ben Miranda, D-Dist. 16, a committee member, asked Mr. McDonald if the order was intended to “force the hand of [Jim] Irvin to resign.”

“The purpose is not to force any resignation,” said Mr. McDonald. “We are conducting a separate inquiry into a really serious charge and want to cover every possibility. I want to get both sides of this matter.”

In the federal court civil case, Southern Union Co. filed suit against Mr. Irvin and Jack Rose, a former commission executive secretary, accusing them of undermining a bid to acquire Southwest Gas Co.

The federal court jury found Jim Irvin responsible for interfering and ordered him to pay $390,072 in compensatory damages and $60 million in punitive damages.

Mr. Rose settled out of court and invoked the Fifth Amendment during the trial.

As part of his investigation, Mr. McDonald told committee members he was questioning Mr. Anthony about the discussions with Ms. Irvin when Mr. Anthony invoked the attorney/client privilege.

Notes In Question

The documents outlined a telephone conservation Ms. Irvin said she had with Mr. Rose, and in Mr. McDonald’s words, portrayed Mr. Rose as “falling on his sword” and taking the blame for interfering in the sale of Southwest Gas Co.

After the documents were withdrawn as evidence, Ms. Irvin testified that Mr. Anthony, who had been her attorney in other matters, had advised her to make the documents from notes she had taken during the conversation and then get rid of the original notes.

“I need to find out what his [Mr. Anthony’s] version of events were,” said Mr. McDonald, who interviewed Mr. Anthony for two hours on Sept. 16.

Mr. McDonald said Ms. Irvin had waived attorney/client privilege when she testified during the trial. “Once she testified, that’s the same as a waiver,” he said. Jim Drake, the House Rules attorney, agreed with Mr. McDonald.

Jeffrey Ross, who along with Marc Duboff, had represented Ms. Irvin during the trial, appeared before the committee briefly and asked members to respect the attorney/client privilege.

Mr. McDonald told committee members he had advised Mr. Ross and Mr. Duboff that he would ask the committee for the order if they did not waive the privilege by the afternoon of Sept. 18, and they had not responded.

Mr. McDonald said that Mr. Anthony’s testimony is particularly critical because now he has Mr. Rose’s version what happened. Because he had invoked the Fifth Amendment, Mr. Rose was not able to comment on the documents during the trial.

The committee granted Mr. Rose immunity on Aug. 27, and Mr. McDonald also said he had spent three days taking a deposition from Mr. Rose. He called the deposition “extremely helpful.” —