Kathy Augustine - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Kathy Marie Alfano Augustine (May 29, 1956 July 11, 2006) was a U.S. Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

politician from Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

. She served in the Nevada Assembly

Nevada Assembly

The Nevada Assembly is the lower house of the Nevada Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Nevada. The body consists of 42 members, elected to two-year terms from single-member districts. Each Assembly district contained approximately 47,400 people as of the 2000 census, although...

(1993–1995) and in the Nevada Senate

Nevada Senate

The Nevada Senate is the upper house of the Nevada Legislature, the state legislature of U.S. state of Nevada. The Senate consists of 21 members from 19 districts, two of which are multimember. Each senator represented approximately 94,700 people as of the 2000 census, although 2006 Census Bureau...

(1995–1999). She was Nevada's first female State Controller

Comptroller

A comptroller is a management level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization.In British government, the Comptroller General or Comptroller and Auditor General is in most countries the external auditor of the budget execution of the...

, serving from 1999 until she was murdered in 2006.

Personal life

Augustine was born as Kathy Marie Alfano in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, and was an Italian-American. Her educational background included a bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

in political science from Occidental College

Occidental College

Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...

, and a Master of Public Administration

Master of Public Administration

The Master of Public Administration is a professional post-graduate degree in Public Administration. The MPA program prepares individuals to serve as managers in the executive arm of local, state/provincial, and federal/national government, and increasingly in nongovernmental organization and...

degree from California State University, Long Beach

California State University, Long Beach

California State University, Long Beach is the second largest campus of the California State University system and the third largest university in the state of California by enrollment...

. While in college, she worked in Washington, D.C., as a Congressional intern. Prior to entering politics, she worked for Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...

as a flight scheduler for twelve years, and briefly as a flight attendant, based out of Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

, after 1988.

Following two short-lived marriages, both ending in divorce (one of which produced her daughter, Dallas), she married Delta Air Lines pilot Charles Augustine. They were married for 17 years until his death from complications of a stroke on August 19, 2003. She had three stepchildren from her marriage to Augustine. Shortly after Charles Augustine's death, she married William Charles "Chaz" Higgs on September 19, 2003, a critical care nurse

Critical care nursing

Critical care nursing is the field of nursing with a focus on the utmost care of the critically ill or unstable patients. Critical care nurses can be found working in a wide variety of environments and specialties, such as emergency departments and the intensive care units.- Training and education...

who had been involved in Augustine's care.

Political career

From 1993 to 1995, she served one term in the Nevada Assembly

Nevada Assembly

. During the 1992 campaign, she was criticized for a campaign advertisement featuring a bad photograph of her African-American opponent (the same photograph, however, was used by her opponent in her own campaign literature). Above descriptions of the two candidates' positions on various issues was a caption reading "There is a real difference." She served in the Nevada Senate

Nevada Senate

from 1995 to 1999. In the 1994 state senate election, she defeated incumbent Lori Lipman Brown

Lori Lipman Brown

Lori Lipman Brown has served as a state senator, lobbyist, lawyer, educator, and social worker supporter. Additionally, her political views have been secularist and civil libertarian and describes herself as an atheist humanist Jew. She served as a Nevada Senator from 1992 to 1994, advocating for...

, and once again drew controversy for a campaign advertisement in which she accused Lipman Brown of being against prayer and opposing the Pledge of Allegiance

Pledge of Allegiance

The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is an expression of loyalty to the federal flag and the republic of the United States of America, originally composed by Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942...

. In fact, Lipman Brown, who is ethnically Jewish (though an atheist theologically), declined to participate in a prayer led by a Christian minister, and the accusation regarding Lipman Brown's opposition to the pledge was false. In 1998, Augustine was elected as the state's first female State Controller, serving in that post until her death. In January 2004, White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

officials advised her that she was a finalist to become Treasurer of the United States

Treasurer of the United States

The Treasurer of the United States is an official in the United States Department of the Treasury that was originally charged with the receipt and custody of government funds, though many of these functions have been taken over by different bureaus of the Department of the Treasury...

Ethics investigation

In September 2004, Augustine admitted violating state ethics laws during her 2002 re-election campaign, and was fined a record US$15,000 by the state Ethics Commission. As a result of the investigation, she was impeached by the state assembly in November of the same year, and temporarily relinquished office. She was the first Nevada state official to be impeached. Following a week-long trial in the state senate, she was convicted on one charge, but acquitted on three others. Augustine was censured, but allowed to resume office.

2006 State Treasurer race

Unable to seek a third term as State Controller, in January 2006, Augustine announced her candidacy for State Treasurer, despite opposition from state Republican Party

Nevada Republican Party

The Nevada Republican Party is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in Nevada. The Republican Party promotes the beliefs that individuals, not the government, make the best decisions. -History:...

leaders stemming from her impeachment. In May 2006, the party voted to deny her party support in the State Treasurer race. Despite her death, her name remained on the ballot for the August 15 primary, and she received 18.64% of the vote.
Had she won, the state Republican Party would have been allowed to designate a replacement nominee.

Death and subsequent investigation

On July 8, 2006, Augustine was found unconscious in her Reno, Nevada

Reno, Nevada

Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...

, home, and died four days later without regaining consciousness. Although early reports stated that the cause of death was a massive heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

, police soon came to suspect foul play. Following Augustine's death, Steve Martin, an accountant and Republican candidate in the 2006 State Controller race was appointed by Governor Kenny Guinn

Kenny Guinn

Kenneth Carroll "Kenny" Guinn was an American businessman, educator and politician. He was the 27th Governor of Nevada from 1999 to 2007. He was a member of the Republican Party and a former member of the Democratic Party....

to succeed her.

On July 14, 2006, Augustine's husband, Chaz Higgs, attempted suicide by slitting his wrists in the couple's Las Vegas home. Higgs was arrested in Hampton, Virginia

Hampton, Virginia

Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...

, on September 29, 2006, and charged with first degree murder in her death after an FBI toxicology test found a paralyzing drug, succinylcholine

Suxamethonium chloride

Suxamethonium chloride , also known as suxamethonium or succinylcholine, is a paralytic drug used to induce muscle relaxation and short-term paralysis, usually to facilitate tracheal intubation. Suxamethonium is sold under the trade names Anectine, Quelicin, and Scoline. It is used as a paralytic...

, in Augustine's system. Higgs, a critical care nurse, allegedly made suspicious remarks to a co-worker about how to kill someone undetectably using succinylcholine

Suxamethonium chloride

. He was extradited back to Nevada. The warrant and test results were kept secret until Higgs's arrest.

Higgs was convicted of murder by a Reno, Nevada, jury

Jury

A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...

on June 29, 2007. He was sentenced to life in prison, with a chance of parole after 20 years. He is on suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

watch after twice trying to kill himself while in custody. He is housed in the High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs, Nevada

Indian Springs, Nevada

Indian Springs is an unincorporated town in Clark County, Nevada, United States. The population was 1,302 at the 2000 census.-History:Indian Springs is named for the artesian spring that provides the area with water...

. In May 2009, the Nevada Supreme Court upheld Higgs' murder conviction in a majority decision.

Personal life

Political career

Ethics investigation

2006 State Treasurer race

Death and subsequent investigation

Further reading