Former process server faces trial in perjury, forgery case
Prosecutors say filing false affidavits involved work for debt collector
Prosecutors began presenting their case Tuesday against a former process server charged in a scheme to file false affidavits.
Maurice Carroll, 43, who owned the process serving company On Scene Mediations, is being retried in District Court on 17 perjury counts and is facing 17 forgery counts for the first time.
The charges focus on phony court affidavits Carroll is accused of putting together in civil cases involving one of his clients, debt collector Richland Holdings.
Carroll, a former Las Vegas police officer, is accused of failing to serve documents in 17 Richland Holdings cases in May and June 2010, though he certified in Justice Court affidavits that he had.
As a consequence, people named in the affidavits were not notified they were being sued by Richland Holdings.
In October 2010, a jury convicted Carroll of the 17 perjury counts and 17 counts of offering false instruments for record or filing and one count of obtaining money under false pretenses.
District Judge Elissa Cadish later ordered Carroll retried on the perjury counts, and prosecutors obtained an indictment against Carroll on the forgery counts.
On Tuesday, Chief Deputy District Attorney Mike Stauda- her told the jury that many of the people Carroll swore he had served in the affidavits weren’t even home at the time. Some were at work, one couple was in England, and one address didn’t even exist, Staudaher said in his opening statement.
Chief Deputy Public Defender Will Ewing said there was no deliberate scheme to falsify the affidavits. Ewing suggested the affidavits were prepared from “dead files” and weren’t meant to be submitted in court. Carroll used the dead files, cases involving people his company was unable to serve, to help train new employees, Ewing said.
Carroll blames his former office manager, Vilisia Coleman, for a large share of his legal troubles, Ewing said.
Coleman, 47, pleaded guilty in the affidavits scheme and is being called to testify for prosecutors today.
One of the prosecution’s witnesses Tuesday was Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa, whom police credit with helping expose the scheme. Saragosa testified at the previous trial.
Las Vegas Justice Court officials believe the actions of On Scene Mediations, which is no longer serving documents, might have harmed the court system over a period of years.
The company, which had operated without a license for nearly seven years, was involved in some 25,000 civil cases in Justice Court, officials have said.
On Scene Mediations also was involved in cases in Henderson Justice Court and North Las Vegas Justice Court.
A class action lawsuit against On Scene Mediations and one of its other clients, payday loan company Rapid Cash, was filed in District Court on behalf of defendants who were never served court papers.