It turns out that we at Various Things & Stuff may have been too hard on Boulder City Attorney Dave Olsen, the man who’s trying to seize the house of a woman who was arrested and pled no contest to possession of marijuana. We essentially called him an armed robber, when really we should have called him an extortionist. Our apologies.

Why the change of heart? In a story in today’s Las Vegas Sun, Olsen admitted he doesn’t really want to seize the home of Boulder City resident Cynthia Warren. Instead, he said, he wants to “settle” the case for money. And that was his intention all along, he says. (We’d link to the story, but it wasn’t updated when we wrote this. Perhaps you can read it later today on the Sun’s website.

“I have been doing these types of cases off and on for 16 years, and in virtually every case, I have never taken anybody’s property,” Olsen told the Sun. “We have always settled. Contrary to what some people might believe, I am not interested in taking this poor woman’s house.”

No, but he is interested in taking this poor woman’s money.

The problem with property seizure is that a defendant has to prove the property wasn’t used as an instrumentality of a criminal enterprise, rather than the state having to prove that it was. This is a departure from normal criminal procedure, when the state has to first prove a crime before it imposes punishment.

And things are even worse in this case, since Olsen never persuaded the district attorney to convict Warren of allegedly trafficking in marijuana from her home. Instead, Warren was allowed to plead guilty to possession of marijuana, surely not an offense that merits the seizure of property.

Furthermore, Warren was assessed a $500 fine as part of her plea agreement, which also saw her get a 30-day suspended sentence and mandatory drug counseling. She did the crime, and did the fine.

But now Olsen comes along with an extortionate motion to seize her house, knowing that Warren’s lawyer, John Lusk, will tell her it’s cheaper to pay off the city rather than fight this obvious wrong. (The city squeezed $3,000 out of some poor bastard who was accused of transporting drugs in his car in the same way, so they know the whole highwayman thing works for them.)

“I think trying to forfeit her house over alleged marijuana in her house is just an error in judgment not only on the prosecutor’s part, but by the City Council,” Lusk says.

No, counselor, it’s not an “error of judgment.” It’s a crime: Extortion under color of authority. Olsen’s action is no different from a cop who demands sexual favors from a prostitute in exchange for not running her in. Only in Olsen’s case, it would be like picking up a hooker after she’s served her jail time and demanding sexual favors, lest he arrest her for a crime with which she was never charged or convicted.

This has gone far beyond ridiculous, to the point of criminal absurdity. If the Boulder City Council won’t stop Olsen’s crusade against Warren, District Attorney David Roger should have him arrested and charged with attempted grand theft, extortion under color of authority and conspiracy. And no, unlike Olsen’s crusade, this is not a joke.

Please, Controller Augustine, run.

That’s the Various Things & Stuff message to state Controller Kathy Augustine, who’s secured her place in history by getting impeached, the only constitutional officer in state history to earn the dubious honor.

Ever the cockeyed optimist, Augustine is said (by today’s Las Vegas Sun) to be eyeing a run for lieutenant governor or state treasurer. She says she knows she’ll face an uphill battle, but it will have been a long time between her impeachment and conviction and Election Day 2006.

We want her to run, so the voters will have a chance to do what the state Senate failed to do: Toss her out of office once and for all.

So please, run. Do it for us pundits. Do it for your own ego. But please, do it.