Paul Hammel
LINCOLN — As promised, the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office has appealed the dismissal of its case alleging that the former director of History Nebraska illegally transferred funds donated to the agency.
A formal notice of appeal was filed late last week and was accepted by the Nebraska Court of Appeals on Monday.
In December, Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong dismissed the felony theft by deception charge against former director Trevor Jones. She ruled that prosecutors with the AG’s office had violated Jones’ right to a speedy trial.
Speedy trial arguments
Jones’ defense attorney, Mallory Hughes, had asked for the dismissal, maintaining that prosecutors had failed to request a trial date within the six allowed months. She argued that Jones should have stood trial by Sept. 12, six months, minus exclusions, after the case had been bound over to the Lancaster County District Court.
In her 12-page ruling, Strong rejected arguments by the Attorney General’s office that the speedy trial clock had been “halted” when Jones’ former defense attorney, John Ball, asked to withdraw from the case a year ago, and because his formal request had not been approved by the court.
The AG’s office was ordered by the Court of Appeals to provide written arguments on why the prosecution should be restored by May 12.
Jones, 52, resigned the $164,800-a-year director’s job in 2022, shortly before a critical state audit was released that questioned his handling of $270,000 in donations from the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation to cover the agency’s financial losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Foundations of controversy
Instead of depositing those funds with the Treasurer’s Office, as legally required, Jones funneled the money into a new foundation Jones had set up to replace the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation, with whom he’d had disagreements. The money was never used to cover COVID losses.
Jones had pleaded not guilty to the felony charge, which carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
He was a controversial figure as director of the history agency, winning praise for leading to greater digitization of historical documents, but also earning scorn from some employees for implementing a heavy-handed and time-consuming management system. The agency has been plagued by high staff turnover since.
Jones rebranded the agency as “History Nebraska,” a move rescinded by Gov. Jim Pillen, who restored the agency’s historic title, the “Nebraska State Historical Society.”
Pillen recently named Daryl Bohac, a former adjutant general of the Nebraska National Guard, to lead the agency. The Society had operated under interim directors for more than two years after Jones’ departure.
Due to action by the Legislature, was made a code agency last summer under the control of the governor. That step ended more than a century of being an independent entity governed by a Board of Trustees.