Rhodes indicted second time

Kim Smith

Monday, Aug. 7, 2000 | 11:17 a.m.

North Las Vegas City Councilman John Rhodes has been indicted a second time on charges that he filed false insurance claims.

The second-term City Council member, who is an insurance salesman, was indicted in May for filing a false claim with State Farm Insurance after a September 1998 burglary. Now he faces similar charges for an alleged burglary in February 1997.

According to the latest indictment, which was unsealed in District Court Friday, Rhodes received $5,250 from State Farm after he told insurance officials that a Rolex watch, jewelry and a videocassette recorder were stolen from his Diana Drive home on Feb. 10, 1997.

However, Rhodes wasn't living at the home at the time and had no property inside the home, the indictment alleges. There was no physical evidence of a break-in, according to the indictment.

Rhodes' attorney, Robert Lucherini, said this morning that he was disappointed the attorney general's office sought a second indictment when a motion to dismiss the first indictment is still pending.

Rhodes did not intend to defraud the insurance company when he filed his claim, and the attorney general's office must prove that in order to win its case, Lucherini said.

The indictment charges Rhodes with one count of insurance fraud and one count of obtaining money under false pretenses. Rhodes, who is out of jail on his own recognizance, is scheduled to be arraigned before District Judge Kathy Hardcastle on Aug. 31.

If Rhodes is convicted, he would face between one and eight years on each count. He would also lose his City Council seat.

North Las Vegas City Council members including the mayor declined comment on Rhodes' indictment.

According to the earlier indictment, Rhodes filed an insurance claim with State Farm claiming that everything in his Diana Drive home had been stolen "except his bed."

Among the items stolen during the first burglary, Rhodes said, was a set of Callaway golf clubs worth almost $1,800.

Rhodes submitted a sales receipt for the clubs signed by Michael L. Farino of Mike's Custom Golf.

According to court documents, Rhodes told the claims adjuster that Farino was dead. However, he said the adjuster could talk to Farino's son. Rhodes then said that instead of speaking with the son, the adjuster should speak with Farino's business partner, Terry Wheaton.

Shortly after the claims adjuster found Farino alive and well at the address on the receipt, the adjuster learned that Rhodes had been trying repeatedly to telephone him so he could cancel his insurance claim, court documents show.

Wheaton, a 20-year friend of Rhodes, told the claims adjuster he never sold Rhodes golf clubs and didn't know Farino.

Farino told the adjuster the only receipt he ever gave Rhodes was for a set of $765 Woods Brothers golf clubs.

As far as the other items reportedly stolen, Rhodes gave State Farm receipts he claimed his bookkeeper, Andre Denson, had been holding for him.

However, court records show Denson told State Farm that he only handled Rhodes' campaign receipts.

Also on Friday Deputy Attorney General Gregory Hojnowski filed his response to Rhodes' motion to dismiss the May indictment.

Lucherini argued the indictment should be dismissed, because Rhodes may have stated things that weren't true and may have made some mistakes while filing his claim, but there is no evidence he is guilty of fraud.

Hojnowski pointed out in his response that a grand jury can indict someone with only "slight or marginal evidence."

The attorney general alleges that Rhodes notarized and signed insurance paperwork that contained lies, provided false information to police, falsely claimed property that was his girlfriend's was his, invented a check, committed forgery and made up Farino's death.

In addition, Hojnowski accuses Rhodes of trying to lay blame on his campaign accountant and other friends.

"Rhodes essentially told lie after lie, only to be followed by more fabrications when confronted with the truth," Hojnowski wrote.

Hojnowski says he notified Rhodes one month before he was indicted that he was about to be indicted. Neither Rhodes nor Lucherini showed up for a scheduled meeting to take care of the matter.

In addition, even though the grand jurors were ready to indict Rhodes on April 27, they decided to wait one week, because one of Lucherini's investigators showed up with a list of witnesses who could clear Rhodes.

Several of the witnesses could not be located, and others testified against Rhodes, court records show.

During that one-week delay, Hojnowski said the only time he heard from Rhodes and Lucherini was when they submitted a list of instructions for the jury to read.

"The failure to present the state with claimed exculpatory evidence, even after the state continued the grand jury presentation to accommodate this last-minute request, can only be viewed as Rhodes' transparent attempt to create an issue where none exists," Hojnowski wrote.

A hearing date to discuss the motion to dismiss has not yet been set.