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A student walks by the headquarters building of the Nebraska State Historical Society in Lincoln. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN – The state’s highest court confirmed what lower courts had already concluded, that the state botched the prosecution of a former director of History Nebraska.
In a 19-page opinion issued Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors with the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office failed to follow the proper procedure in appealing the dismissal of the prosecution for misuse of state funds against former History Nebraska Director Trevor Jones.
The ruling – over what the court called a “somewhat arcane rule of appellate procedure” – ends a nearly four-year-long saga that began with a critical state audit in 2022. The audit accused Jones of improperly using $270,000 in contributions from the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation to pad a competing private foundation Jones set up instead of using the funds to defray losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Attorney General’s Office eventually charged Jones with felony theft by deception, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He had resigned his $164,800-a-year job shortly before the audit came out.
But before the case could come up for trial, Jones’ defense lawyers called for dismissing the case, because the state had failed to hold the trial within six months of when it was bound over to the Lancaster County District Court.
Lancaster District Court Judge Susan Strong agreed that the state had violated state’s “speedy trial” requirements and granted a discharge of the case.
That prompted the Attorney General’s office to appeal, arguing that the speedy trial clock had been “halted” for a time due to a change in defense attorneys.
But the Nebraska Court of Appeals dismissed that appeal on procedural grounds 10 months ago, ruling that state prosecutors had followed the wrong statute in contesting Strong’s decision.
On Friday, the state Supreme Court agreed that prosecutors had failed to pursue an “exception proceeding” in seeking to overturn the dismissal of the criminal case and instead had relied on other statutes to appeal.
“The State did not follow the procedures necessary to obtain (a) review,” stated Friday’s opinion, written by Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Papik. Papik wrote that “an observer could be forgiven for asking why any of this really matters” when it comes to following proper procedure in an appeal.
“The answer lies in our constitutional separation of powers,” the judge wrote.
Because the AG’s office didn’t follow the correct procedure set up by the Legislature, the Court of Appeals “lacked the power” to decide the state’s appeal, the opinion stated.
Suzanne Gage, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office, said Friday that the case “raised an important question about how motions to discharge are reviewed on appeal.”
“We appreciate the guidance about how to proceed in future cases,” she said.
Since Jones’ departure, Gov. Jim Pillen has ordered the agency to change its name back to the “Nebraska State Historical Society.”
Jones, during his four years as director, stirred controversy by imposing a personnel management system that workers complained micromanaged their jobs, by changing the name of the state agency and by de-emphasizing historical exhibits. He won praise, however, for pushing to digitize historical records.
At last report, Jones, 53, was living in Minnesota.
Mallory Hughes, one of Jones’ defense attorneys, said Friday that her client was “grateful this matter has come to a close.”
“This has been a long several years for Mr. Jones, who has maintained his innocence throughout these proceedings,” she said.
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- 11:10 amEditor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from Trevor Jones’ attorney and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office.
