"I don't know that it's a direct violation to borrow against [campaign funds] on occasion and return the money plus interest," Mosley said during a deposition in an unrelated defamation suit and counterclaim. "I'm not too concerned about that as an infraction of ethics."
Mosley said he gave the money to Terry Figliuzzi (who later changed her name to Mosley). "The situation was that it was early in December and her parents were coming out from Minnesota to visit us
Mosley said he loaned his girlfriend the money because she expected to win a lawsuit over an unpaid real estate commission of more than $600,000. "It was thought at the time that it was just a matter of several weeks or a month or so and she would have this enormous judgment and so the money would be available."
Eventually, the judge said, the $10,000 was restored to his campaign fund when he received $20,000 from a claim against the judgment.
In an interview, Terry Mosley disputed the judge's version, saying that she had regarded the $10,000 as a gift -- "Christmas money. He brought it home in cash and tossed it on the table. It wasn't a loan. I never signed anything."
She said the $20,000 was unrelated to the gift. "I never paid Don back for that -- not to this day."
Judge Mosley's campaign funding reports do not resolve the conflicting versions. His 1990 reports say he raised $56,811 and spent $27,573 -- leaving $29,238 unspent, but the reports show no $10,000 withdrawal or loan.
The reports he filed in 1996, before his next campaign -- one year after Terry Mosley won her $606,877 judgment -- reflect no loan repayment.
In 1990, the year Mosley said he withdrew the money from his campaign fund, Canon 7 of the Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct held that a judge or candidate for judicial office "should not use ... campaign contributions for purposes unrelated to the campaign."
Today, the question is covered by Canon 5, which says judicial candidates "shall not use or permit the use of campaign contributions for the private benefit of the candidate or others."
Since 1991, Nevada state law has banned personal use of campaign donations by any state or local candidate. In its most recent formulation, Nevada Revised Statute 294A.160 states: "It is unlawful for a candidate to spend money received as a campaign contribution for his personal use."
Apart from what Mosley did with his campaign money, his girlfriend's real estate lawsuit entangled him in a conflict from which he did not withdraw.
