A former employee who filed a deadbeat employer suit against Rep. Chris Cannon says he moved his suit from state court to federal court amid a stalemate in settlement negotiations.

However, Cannon's counsel Wm. Kelly Nash says the wage claim appears to be separate from "prior unsuccessful state litigation . . . we are confident it will also be dismissed."

Chet Poulton claims he is owed more than $88,000 in back pay from C4 Communications Inc., an Internet company in which Cannon was an investor.

In the suit filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court, Poulton alleges that C4 failed to pay his wages. He goes on to call into question Cannon's business finances and alleges Cannon "illegally divert(ed) campaign contributions and use(d) them to run his own private businesses."

At the time of his employment, Poulton worked as a computer technician for C4.

Nash said he hadn't had a chance to evaluate the complaint but said the charges are baseless. "This campaign has been audited in the past and has been given a clean bill of health," he said. "We have confidence in Mr. Cannon's experienced financial management staff and believe these disparaging statements will go nowhere . . . This matter is clearly politically motivated and is an example of improperly using the courts as a forum for an obvious political attack."

Poulton's attorney Danny Quintana, a one-time candidate for the Democratic nomination to run against Cannon for the 3rd District seat, claims he has documented evidence to support his allegations of campaign fund abuse, adding Poulton also has computer data to support the claim. "It's really bad to stiff your computer tech," Quintana said.

But Quintana wants to take the campaign fund issue to another level, adding he plans to request that the court appoint a federal receiver to audit all congressional campaigns of all political parties, saying "numerous congressional candidates from all political parties are using campaign contributions for purposes other than running for Congress."

Poulton is alleging unpaid wages, racketeering and common-law fraud in the case and has requested $1 million in punitive damages in addition to his alleged unpaid wages.

The original suit was filed in October, 2002, just weeks before the general election. At the time, Poulton said the timing was purposeful to get Cannon's attention. But after years of trying to wrangle out a settlement, Quintana said he chose to have the suit moved to federal court, adding the campaign spending allegations.

"We didn't want to sue anybody," Quintana said. "My client just wants to get paid."

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