Rhodes faces January trial date

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

North Las Vegas City Councilman John Rhodes will go to trial Jan. 8 on insurance fraud charges.

District Judge Kathy Hardcastle set the trial date this morning after Rhodes pleaded not guilty in the latest of two insurance fraud cases filed against him in the past year.

Rhodes' arraignment in the second case had been delayed several times, the last time after his attorney, Robert Lucherini, attempted to get Hardcastle removed from the case.

According to the state attorney general's office, Rhodes filed false insurance claims pertaining to two alleged burglaries at his Diana Drive home, one in February 1997 and the other in September 1998.

Rhodes pleaded not guilty in the first case several months ago. Hardcastle will decide next month whether the two cases should be tried together.

Lucherini wanted Hardcastle to recuse herself, because when she worked for the attorney general's office, she helped set up the insurance fraud division's policies and procedures.

District Judge Donald Mosley ruled that Hardcastle could remain on the cases.

Rhodes denies the allegations and Lucherini is challenging the attorney general's interpretation of an insurance fraud statute used in the case.

If found guilty of a felony, Rhodes, who is up for re-election in May, would lose his council seat.