Chenoweth’s Land Deal Still Tangled Wrong Property Was Transferred

Republican Rep. Helen Chenoweth deeded the wrong property to an Idaho Falls couple last week while trying to clear up a land sale critics claimed was a cover-up for an illegal campaign contribution.

Press secretary Khris Bershers said Chenoweth’s ex-husband, Orofino lawyer Nick Chenoweth, had a title company prepare a description of the 53 acres at Orofino the two hold jointly so half of her interest could be transferred to millionaire businessman Alan Ball and his wife, Connie.

The title company mistakenly included in the property description a parcel owned by Nick Chenoweth and his present wife, Julie, with a third party, Bershers said.

But Bershers was not sure if the error was an addition to the 53 acres. Nick Chenoweth is taking steps to correct the mistake, she said.

But even so, Bershers added, “Helen’s deal is done.”

The conservative freshman got $60,000 for half of her half-interest in the tract and used that cash for an eleventh-hour push that gave her the GOP congressional nomination in May 1994.

The 1995 assessed value of the entire 53 acres was $34,000, but Chenoweth’s defenders maintain that is because the tract was assessed as agricultural land and its value for development is significantly greater.

Recording the transfer was up to Ball under state law and is not legally required. But because no deed was filed for more than two years after the deal was cut, Chenoweth’s critics claimed there may never have been a sale and the story was only a ruse to hide an illegal contribution to Chenoweth’s campaign.

Only after repeated inquiries was the sale recorded last Friday by Nick Chenoweth. On Monday, Helen Chenoweth released two undated pages of what she said was her original 1994 federal income tax return that she claimed showed she declared the profit from the sale as income that year.

Chenoweth said she gave the original deed to Ball in April 1994 but that it was apparently lost. Nick Chenoweth says the land is listed in his name only at the courthouse because he pays the annual taxes.