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Judge dismisses felony charge against former state historical society director

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Judge dismisses felony charge against former state historical society director

By Paul Hammel
Judge dismisses felony charge against former state historical society director
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The headquarters of History Nebraska, formerly called the Nebraska State Historical Society, is just north of downtown Lincoln. The agency changed its name to History Nebraska in 2018. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comment from the Attorney General’s Office and an attorney for Trevor Jones.

LINCOLN – A judge ruled late Tuesday that prosecutors had waited too long before bringing former History Nebraska director Trevor Jones to trial and dismissed the felony theft charge he faced.

Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong, in a 12-page ruling, granted a motion filed by Jones’ attorney to discharge the theft by deception charge, agreeing that prosecutors had violated the former director’s right to a speedy trial.

Trevor Jones
Former History Nebraska Director Trevor Jones, at left, arrives at a court hearing with his lawyer, John Ball of Lincoln. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)

Mallory Hughes, Jones’ defense attorney, filed the motion in November, arguing that prosecutors with the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office had failed to request a trial date and that Jones should have stood trial by Sept. 12, six months, minus exclusions, after the case was bound over to district court.

The Attorney General’s Office, represented most recently by Sandra Allen, argued that the speedy trial clock had been “halted” when Jones’ former defense attorney, John Ball, asked to withdraw from the case a year ago, but his formal request was not approved by the court.

Strong, in her ruling, noted that Jones’ new attorneys, Hughes and co-counsel Paul Lembrick, had already filed as the new lawyers for Jones prior to Ball’s request to withdraw, and that the Attorney General’s Office had shared investigative files with them, thus recognizing them as the new defense counsel.

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“Thus, it is apparent that the State did not halt its prosecution of the Defendant as a result of Ball’s motion,” the judge wrote, and that the case, and the speedy trial clock, continued to run.

Strong disagreed with prosecutors that “excludable days” meant that the speedy trial clock had not run out, and dismissed the theft charge against Jones with prejudice, meaning it could not be refiled. The former director had faced a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

A spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday night said that the office “respectfully disagreed” with the judge’s order and would be appealing.

Hughes, the attorney for Jones, issued a statement Wednesday saying she was “very happy about the outcome.” She thanked the court for its “attention to detail” about the legal history and issues at play.

“The Sixth Amendment speedy trial right is fundamental to the United States Constitution, and it is a right protected under Nebraska statutory law as well,” she said. “So it is no small matter when that right is violated for a citizen facing a criminal trial.”

Judge dismisses felony charge against former state historical society director
Nebraska History Museum. (Paul Hammel for the Nebraska Examiner)

Jones, 52, had stirred controversy within the state historical society by imposing strict workplace standards for workers and striving to digitize historical records — to the detriment, some said, of the physical exhibits and paper records.

He resigned the $164,800-a-year job in 2022, shortly before a critical state audit — first reported by the Examiner — raised questions about his handling of $270,000 in donations from the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation intended to cover the agency’s financial losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead of depositing those funds with the state treasurer, as legally required, Jones funneled the money to a new foundation that the then-director set up to displace the State Historical Society Foundation, with whom he had disagreements.

The felony theft charge was filed by the Attorney General’s Office after the Lancaster County Attorney’s Office reviewed reports and declined to file charges.

The Nebraska State Historical Society — which Jones renamed History Nebraska when he was director — reached an agreement to repay the $270,000 to the Historical Society Foundation.