In December, a jury found fault with the elected official trying to convince the Lakota Schools to build a golf academy at the golf course community where his family lives — using excess auditor fees Reynolds routinely returned to taxing bodies.
Reynolds’ attorney Chad Ziepfel in his brief said the guilty verdict was unfounded and sets dangerous precedent.
“If affirmed, this case will open up to criminal liability every brainstorm that a public officials has about how to spend public funds,” Ziepfel wrote. “No case has swept so broadly. For good reason. The statute does not permit it.”
Visiting Judge Daniel Hogan sentenced him to 30 days in jail but stayed it pending this appeal and five years probation. He also fined him $5,000 and ordered he serve 100 hours of community service.
Reynolds has tried twice to get Hogan to dismiss the conviction, first moving for an acquittal and again by trying for a retrial by accusing special prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office of hiding important evidence. Hogan denied both.
Reynolds had some conversations with former Lakota Schools Treasurer Jenni Logan about financing a golf academy at Four Bridges Golf Course, where his family lives. He suggested they use some of the money — $750,000 — he is required to return to taxing bodies in excess auditor’s office service fees. His daughter is on the Lakota golf team hence the alleged self-benefit.
Reynolds claims the conviction was unwarranted on a number of fronts: no contract with the school was even close to being consummated; he wasn’t communicating with anyone authorized to approve such a project; he didn’t strong-arm anyone using his title as auditor and neither he nor his daughter had a personal interest in the golf academy.
“There is insufficient evidence that Reynolds ‘employed his authority or influence.’ Reynolds acted as a taxpayer and a private citizen, presenting his idea to Jenni Logan in an intentionally informal meeting,” Ziepfel wrote. “He did not request to speak to her one-on-one because he was trying to sneak around and circumvent the system.”
He noted Reynolds even encouraged Logan to seek a legal opinion, “this is not the behavior of someone who is attempting to strong-arm his way into securing authorization of a contract.”
He raised these issues when he asked Hogan for an outright acquittal and special Prosecutor Brad Tammaro argued the law requires proof that influence was used to secure authorization, not that a contract came to fruition.
Hogan said in his decision denying the acquittal “the record is replete with evidence of defendant’s behavior. Some behavior is subtle. Some not so subtle. The jury was free to use said evidence and inferences drawn there from to determine if the defendant used the authority and influence of his office to secure authorization of proposed contract.”
He also claims Hogan erred by not granting a new trial after they disclosed emails from the owner of Four Bridges they found after the trial were withheld from them. They said the correspondence show the golf facility was the golf coach’s idea not Reynolds’; the Lakota staff “moved forward with their coach’s idea even after Reynolds’ dropped it, showing that he did not exercise any undue influence” and the emails contradict Logan’s testimony.
The civil suit
The Lakota incident was the least serious of the allegations he was charged with. He was found not guilty of three felony charges including bribery and one misdemeanor charge related to a $4 million civil lawsuit filed by 88-year-old Gerald Parks and his daughter Tina Barlow in September 2021. The jury found Reynolds was not criminally liable for downing some development deals Parks was trying to forge.
The claims in that case have evolved — and other defendants dismissed — and now both sides have asked visiting Judge Dennis Langer to settle the matter in their favor ahead of the Oct. 30 trial.
The two main charges are that Reynolds used his office and political clout to doom three development deals — worth $1.3 to $1.35 million each — and removed agricultural tax breaks from Parks’ land. He is charged individually and in his capacity as auditor.
Reynolds claims he has statutory immunity because he was a public official at the time. The county paid his legal fees for the civil case up to the $100,000 deductible, their insurance company took over payments earlier this year. Reynolds is paying for his criminal defense.
Parks’ attorney Chip Goff told the Journal-News previously the not-guilty verdicts in the charges involving his client’s claims won’t adversely impact his case.
“The burden of proof the jury must apply in a civil trial is a preponderance of the evidence. It is a much lower standard than that required of a criminal trial which is reasonable doubt,” Goff said. “The facts and evidence presented to a jury in a criminal trial may result in a not guilty verdict for a defendant, but those same facts and evidence presented to a different jury in a civil trial may result in the same defendant being found civilly liable for damages.”
Staff writer Lauren Pack contributed to this report.
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