Prosecutor Misconduct No. 1719265376 - 451852068

Jose Rodriguez
2610 14th Street
Columbus, Nebraska 68601

Reporting Authority

This complaint has been forwarded to the Nebraska State Bar Association

Statement

The date I entered is the date of the sentencing. The case was June 29, 2022- June 29, 2023. The case number is Platte County CR 22-117. State vs. Mary Wiegand. Summary. I was accused by my former employer, Platte Valley Literacy Association (PVLA), for theft and forgery. PVLA accused me of forgery checks to myself for personal purchases. Throughout the case I repeatedly asked for the laptop that I used at PVLA as well as invoices from 2018 and 2022. (2019, 2020, and 2021 some invoices were provided) I was told that the 2018 and 2022 invoices do not exist. However the 2022 invoices were discussed by myself and the Police and the conversation was recorded. This is proof that the invoices for 2022 did exist. Plus PVLA was able to provide invoices for Jan of 2022. I was able to locate over $25,000 worth of invoices using my own personal laptop. The reason I wanted the laptop from PVLA is that there were minutes from board meetings, emails, and websites that showed more legitimate purchases. The PVLA board of directors was given a copy of all the bank statements from 2018-2022. They told the State that any check made out to me was fraudulent, and it was up to me to prove otherwise. Again, I was able to prove over $25.,000 worth of invoices, but since I had no access to 2018 and 2022 all those checks were marked as forged and was added to the forgery and theft total. On those bank statements the board members were to mark which checks they believed contained their forged signature. Out of all the checks, 9 checks that were signed by Sharyle Sands, she marked with an X and signed off that those were not her signature. That amount totaled $11,904.45 Of those 9 checks, 2 were marked by prosecutor as legitimate, ($2065.28 worth), 2 checks had invoices associated with them ($1701.60). There was also 3 checks ($2482.69)signed by Karen Connell that Sylvia Coffey claimed were not signed by Karen. Sylvia claimed that Karen was either out of town, or her office was closed the day the checks in question were signed. #1 Why was Sylvia commenting and making claims about Karen's signature, and of those 3 checks, 2 had invoices associated with them. ($1632.69) The total of all the checks listed above that had no invoices with them totals $8987.57. So why was I charged with over $107k of theft/forgery. I brought this up to my attorney and he told me that the board was probably not provided with all the statements. How is that possible. The board is who provided the prosecutor with all the bank statements that they got from my office and/or the bank. The prosecutor is who sent that over to my attorney. So if there were more, we should have been given them. Also- PVLA had their attorney, Jordan Mueller, go back and enter all the checks and deposits that were written and made from 2018-June 2023. He reconciled all of them. My attorney took that and compared it to the books that I presented to the PVLA board. The beginning date both totals were the same, and the final balance at the end was the same. How can that be? If I stole money from PVLA, then the ending balance from PVLA's accountant should be lower that the one I did. Again, why was I convicted of over $107k? I asked my attorney to bring this up to the prosecutor, and he said he wouldn't be submissible for it was just coincidental that the amounts matched. He eventually did bring this up to Jose, and Jose told us that it was not submissible unless we hired our own accountant. Why? If the State is using the report made by PVLA's accountant and the ones from me, why can't we? What could another accountant bring to the table. **I have not provided you with the reports, but I can if needed.*** I am attaching the pages that have the signatures and X's from the board members claiming it was not their signature. A search warrant to run my credit report was used. A hyperlink to my Credit Report was found by Sylvia Coffey of PVLA. SHe clicked on it and discovered it was my personal credit report. She said she got out of it and then called the police for them to look at. This proves that Sylvia and PVLA had full access to the laptop, and they could do whatever they wanted to do with it. Again, why was the laptop not taken into custody? Why was I not given access to the laptop? The Police wanted to use that report to see if there were any other accounts I had that the police did not know about. There wasn't. They also discovered that all payments (mortgage, car payments, credit card payments) were all made on time for the actual payment amount, no more no less. Meaning they were trying to find if there were any large, out of the ordinary, and extra payments being made. That would be proof that I was stealing money to pay off my debts. I also provided Jose a copy of my mortgage that I actually had refinanced to get lower interest and borrow against to purchase windows. I showed Jose the receipts for the windows. Jose told my attorney that he thought I refinanced for the whole amount of my house and use that money to pay back PVLA. 1) I did not and I provided proof. 2) If i did, wouldn't there be a very large unknown deposit made into the bank? There wasn't. In fact all deposits made were all accounted for. Meaning I had proof what all the deposits came from (and there were not from me- but from grants.) I am attaching: the pages from the bank statement that have the signatures and X's from the board members claiming it was not their signature. the search warrant. Probation order Sentencing order I am sorry that I am sending yet another complaint form. There is just so much to this case, that i want to make sure that everything I feel was not provided to me is told about. My constitutional rights were taken away by not allowing me to interview my witnesses, and my not allowing me to all the evidence. My case would have had a different outcome if I was given these opportunities. Thank you again for your time and consideration.

Definition of Offense(s)

Prosecutorial misconduct refers to actions by a prosecutor that are unethical, illegal, or violate the rights of a defendant.


Cooperative misconduct refers to a situation where the prosecutor collaborates or conspires with another party, such as the police, to commit misconduct. This type of behavior can include suppressing evidence, withholding information, or engaging in unethical tactics to secure a conviction.


Evidence that is favorable to the defendant (exculpatory) and could impact the outcome of the defendant’s case (material) is often called “Brady material” because of the seminal 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland.