UMC, a case with many tentacles

Tony Cook and Marshall Allen

Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

The public corruption investigation of the former head of Clark County's University Medical Center, now a year old, could be nearing a turning point.

Metro Police turned the case over to District Attorney David Roger on Sept. 6 but have continued to gather evidence. Roger is meeting with his deputies today to discuss the status of the case.

Roger has two options if he decides to prosecute former UMC Chief Executive Lacy Thomas. Roger's office could file a criminal complaint, which could lead to a preliminary hearing within 15 days. He could also take the evidence to a grand jury and seek a criminal indictment, which could lead to a trial within 60 days, though defendants often waive their rights to a speedy trial to better prepare their defense.

If the case does go to a grand jury, the presentation could stretch out because grand juries typically meet once a week.

Roger wouldn't say how he plans to proceed.

National experts say long delays are not unusual in complex public corruption investigations. The case also has been hampered by other factors. Roger is personally handling the O.J. Simpson case, in which the former football star faces charges in a robbery at Palace Station in September.

"I had hoped to have periodic meetings with prosecutors to find out where we are, but the Simpson case took me out of the office for a little bit," Roger said.

Police began the Thomas investigation a year ago and recommended in September that Roger file charges alleging that Thomas and two Chicago businessmen - Martello Pollock and Orlando Jones - developed a scheme in which Thomas traded lucrative UMC contracts in exchange for money deposited into his wife's bank account.

Roger does not want to handle the case piecemeal. "There is still another aspect of the case Metro is following up on," Roger said. "We want all the charges in one criminal complaint."

The further investigation led to subpoenas for bank records in Illinois. But prosecutors say the documents have been delayed.

Sources familiar with the investigation said one evolving aspect of the case involves UMC contracts with Frasier Systems Group, a Chicago company paid $673,000 to improve the hospital's business performance and information technologies.

Frasier's president, Gregory Boone, knew Thomas from Cook County Hospital in Chicago, where Thomas was chief financial officer. UMC officials told police that Frasier Systems never delivered any completed project or report and that they could not recall any actual services provided by Frasier.

The case police recommended to Roger alleges that Thomas gave no-bid work to Crystal Communications, a Chicago company owned by Pollock. The work included a $132,780 contract, but no one police interviewed could point to any work that resulted from the contract, according to an affidavit filed in January.

Sources also said $5,000 went to a subsidiary of Orlando Jones & Associates, a lobbying firm. Jones and Thomas are friends. Crystal Communications and Orlando Jones & Associates shared an office in Chicago.

In exchange for those contracts, sources said, Jones directed one of his clients, Chicago-based Family Guidance Centers Inc., to pay Thomas' wife to open a drug rehabilitation clinic in Las Vegas. Although money was deposited in her account, the clinic never opened, sources said.

Less than a week after Metro Police sent their report to Roger, the case took its most unexpected turn. Jones killed himself. Prosecutors and Metro officials said his death has not affected the case against Thomas.

Jean Rosenbluth, a former federal prosecutor and an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California Law School, said prosecutors commonly take months, sometimes years, to wade through the paper trail of a white-collar case that involves thousands of documents and computer files, as the Thomas investigation does. Prosecutors must be familiar with all aspects of a case and evidence must be legally sufficient, convincing and admissible in court, she said.

In addition, high-profile cases up the ante, so prosecutors must ensure everything is in order before moving forward, Rosenbluth said.

"You certainly want to get your ducks in a row before you charge somebody," she said.