LAS VEGAS - How does a house become a home? Is it defined by the trinkets inside or the people who live there? One of those people may be Las Vegas City Council Ward 3 candidate Adriana Martinez, who is accused of not living in her district.
"This isn't true. In fact, from what I saw there, I can clearly see why they would file that," she said.
Wednesday afternoon, lawyer Terry Coffing filed a lengthy complaint alleging Martinez had not lived at the home on Sweeney Avenue in Ward 3 as the law requires.
Read Adriana Martinez's Voter Registration Application
"It's clear from the evidence that we've gathered that she's not living in that residence currently," Coffing said.
Read the Investigator's Affidavit
Read the Investigator's Surveillance Log
Coffing's private investigator staked out the house multiple times a day in early January. The investigator even set up a 24-hour, fixed camera. The camera rarely captured Martinez at the home.
Martinez says she has a simple explanation. "My mother has had a knee replacement, a hernia operation and she's been ill. My father passed away, and all I have is my mother," she said.
Martinez says she has been staying in the casita in the back. It's sparse, but the house is full of storage. She's been trying to rehabilitate the foreclosure on Sweeney, but ran out of money after buying it in 2009. Now, she spends most of her time in shifts with her sisters.
"I will stay at my sister Susy's house. I'll stay at my sister Gina's house, all for my mother," she said.
She sees the complaint as a personal attack. "You know what they're trying to do? They're trying to "Lynette Boggs" me," she claimed.
Boggs, a former Clark County Commissioner, was infamously caught on camera living outside her district. The video brought sanctions against Boggs. Martinez says this family matter is a different story.
"I would hope that a judge would be able to look at what it is, what the facts are, and I hope that I would get a chance to explain this," she said.
Coffing wants results. "If someone wants to say, ‘No harm, no foul,' but that's not what the law says," he said.
He believes the distinction between house and home is clear. "Owning a house is not enough. You have to actually live there," he said.
Now, Martinez begins her defense. Her family business is now up for debate. "Did I expect it to get nasty? I think this is just the beginning," she said.
Depending how the complaint is handled, Martinez expects to have to explain and document her mother's physical problems, her ownership of the house and more.
