Rhodes won’t stand trial until ruling made on appeal

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 | 8:29 a.m.

Former North Las Vegas Councilman John Rhodes will not stand trial for a 1997 charge alleging insurance fraud until the Nevada Supreme Court has made a decision on his appeal of a 2003 conviction on similar charges of insurance fraud.

In August 2003, a jury convicted Rhodes of insurance fraud and he was sentenced by District Judge Michael Cherry to probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine as well as to perform 300 hours of community service.

Rhodes lost his council seat in the June 2001 election.

Rhodes' attorney, Robert Lucherini, said Tuesday that it's in the best interest of the courts, the Nevada Attorney General's Office and his client that the pending 1997 case not be brought to trial until the state's high court rules on the appeal of the 2003 conviction.

"We're waiting on the (Nevada) Supreme Court to decide the first case and depending on the appeal we'll decide on how to proceed in the other case," Lucherini said.

Lucherini said he expects a decision on the appeal within the next 4 to 6 months. He said the issue raised in the appeal is the same as the central issue raised in Rhodes' defense at trial, which is how one At Rhodes' trial, prosecutors argued insurance fraud based on Rhodes' filing of a false insurance claim worth $10,200 in order to collect money for property he never owned. The claim was never paid.

Authorities said Rhodes lied to insurance investigators and falsified receipts for items he claimed were stolen from his North Las Vegas home in a reported 1998 robbery.

The items he said were stolen included leather furniture, a personal organizer and a set of Callaway golf clubs he said had a value higher than $1,800.

Although the jury found Rhodes guilty of insurance fraud in the case it could not agree on whether he was guilty of a second count, intent to obtain money under false pretenses, which carried a 1- to 4-year prison sentence. Cherry declared a mistrial on that count.