Dawn, who had become a member of the Nevada Assembly in 1998, denied the allegations in 2006, claiming that Sandoval had merely been a friend who had helped out around the house and was given clothing and household goods, but was not an employee.
Sandoval stated that she was employed from approximately 1987 to 1993, four years before Gibbons left for Washington in 1997, after his 1996 election as a Congressman and five years before Dawn Gibbons became a state legislator.