Rhodes testifies he was ‘playing the game’

Malia Spencer

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2003 | 9:33 a.m.

Former North Las Vegas Councilman John Rhodes said he was "playing the game" when he sent false receipts to back up an insurance claim, an act that landed him in District Court facing felony insurance fraud charges.

Rhodes took the stand Wednesday and admitted to making misleading statements and submitting forged documents to State Farm Insurance regarding a 1998 robbery of his house.

"I am not very proud of what I did," Rhodes testified. "I created misrepresentations and implicated people. I hurt my friends in this process."

Rhodes also alleged during his testimony that North Las Vegas Police officers may have tampered with police reports to make it appear that he claimed the same personal digital organizer was stolen twice.

The organizer, an Apple Newton, was reported stolen in his home robbery and a couple months earlier from his office. He said he owned only one Newton.

Rhodes said police may have tampered with the reports because he was in heated negotiations with the Police Officers Association at the time.

"I thought someone altered information in that police report," he testified.

Rhodes said he didn't think the insurance company was taking his claim seriously so he began to "play the game" that the insurance company had started, he said.

He was in a "Machiavellian thought process," Rhodes said during his cross examination by Gerald Gardner of the state attorney general's office.

He told prosecutors he knew it wouldn't take State Farm long to figure out the documents were false.

"I wanted them (State Farm) to receive a message," Rhodes said regarding false documents he submitted about a set of Callaway golf clubs. "I know what you're doing; now here's what I'm doing."

He said the insurance company would accept only original receipts, and as a licensed insurance broker, Rhodes testified that he knew that meant the company probably wouldn't pay his claim.

"I felt they really weren't interested in listening," he told the court.

The insurance company wanted original receipts "so I created an original receipt," Rhodes testified.

Rhodes also confirmed that he made false statements during an examination under oath, which is a statement made before a notary public that carries the same weight as statements made in a court of law.

"I made misrepresentations during this particular EUO," Rhodes testified. "The game was on and I continued to play the game."

Rhodes' defense attorney, Robert Lucherini, then had Rhodes clarify that testimony to the jury. Rhodes said he never signed the statement and, therefore, he said, it was never a binding oath.

Rhodes testified that he didn't sign the document because he was frustrated with the insurance claim process and he was planning to withdraw the claim.

The trial, which began Aug. 20, was expected to wrap up today with closing arguments.

The incident at the root of the case occurred in September 1998, but the case has slowly gone through the system, Gardner said. The biggest delay, he said, was an appeal made to the Nevada State Supreme Court regarding jury instructions.

Rhodes ended his testimony by telling his attorney that he had no intentions of defrauding State Farm.

"My misrepresentations were not the right thing to do," Rhodes testified.