Judge delays decision on change of venue request in Krolicki case

By Jeff Pope

Monday, Aug. 3, 2009 | 4:31 p.m.

A decision on a change of venue request in the state’s prosecution of Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki and a co-defendant was delayed Monday to give a judge time to review arguments.

The written request, submitted by each party’s attorneys, also seeks to have the case dismissed, saying it was improperly filed in Southern Nevada rather than in Carson City where the alleged actions would have taken place.

District Court Judge Elissa Cadish said she would issue a written decision in a few days.

A grand jury charged Krolicki last year with mishandling state funds from a college savings plan that he created when he served as state treasurer.

His former chief of staff, Kathryn Besser, is charged with aiding him in allegedly transferring some of the profits to unauthorized accounts.

Their attorneys argued the state Attorney General’s Office charged their clients with acts that would have occurred in Carson City and not Clark County.

“There has to be a reasonable relationship between the offense and the venue. All of the evidence presented to the grand jury shows that the elements of these offenses occurred in Northern Nevada,” said Margaret Stanish, Krolicki’s attorney.

The majority of the students paying into the program lived in Clark County and the money allegedly misspent on advertising the program occurred in Southern Nevada, Chief Deputy Attorney General Conrad Hafen said.

“So Clark County would be potentially the largest beneficiaries of those fees if they had properly been accounted for and applied to the budget of the program,” he said.

The charges arose from a 2007 audit of state-run college-savings programs.

Krolicki is charged with two counts of misappropriation and falsification of accounts by a public officer and two counts of misappropriation by a treasurer.

Besser is charged with being a principal to misappropriation and falsification of accounts and being a principal to misappropriation by a treasurer.

Krolicki's office ran the Nevada College Savings Program, a public-private initiative that helped parents and students save money for tuition, books and room and board, from 2001 to 2006.

The indictment alleges Krolicki improperly accounted for money earned by the state through fees.

Prosecutors allege that more than $6 million in state funds was used to pay for program expenses, including advertising, management and legal services. The Legislature allocated just $1.6 million for those expenditures, according to the 2007 audit.

The state Supreme Court is scheduled on Aug. 31 to hear a request to have the Attorney General’s Office removed from prosecuting the case because of a conflict of interest. Several current and former lawyers in the office provided legal advice in creating the program.

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto appealed that ruling but also nominated noted defense attorney Dominic Gentile as special prosecutor.