Former process server Carroll wins new trial, but could face new charges

A successful push to win a new trial has backfired against former Las Vegas process server Maurice Carroll.

Following a wild hearing late Thursday, District Judge Elissa Cadish agreed to retry Carroll on 17 perjury charges.

But she refused to grant him a new trial on 17 other counts of filing false affidavits and one count of obtaining money under false pretenses.

And Chief Deputy District Attorney Mike Staudaher, who prosecuted Carroll, said Friday that a defense witness' testimony at the hearing will prompt new forgery charges against the former Las Vegas police officer.

Carroll, 42, who ran the unlicensed process serving company On Scene Mediations, was convicted in October of perjury and submitting the false affidavits in civil cases involving one of his clients, debt collector Richland Holdings.

He was accused of failing to serve documents in 17 Richland Holdings cases, though he certified in affidavits that he had. The defendants in those cases were hit with default judgments after they didn't show up for hearings they knew nothing about.

Cadish granted Carroll the new trial on the perjury charges because Terri Smith, a former Carroll employee now living in Denver, testified for the first time on Thursday that the notary signature on the 17 affidavits was not hers. At the time of trial she could not be located to testify. On Thursday, Cadish concluded that Smith's testimony should be heard by a jury.

Her testimony, however, opened the door for prosecutors to charge Carroll with the additional criminal conduct: Staudaher now wants to know who wrote Smith's name on the affidavits.

"I can't let stand the fact that someone can potentially get out of a perjury count by committing another crime of forgery," Staudaher said Friday.

Carroll's lawyer, Craig Mueller, said he was "pleased with the partial victory" of a new trial on the perjury counts, but said he didn't understand the "theory of liability" Staudaher will use in pursuing the forgery charges against Carroll.

Smith testified she had received two dozen calls from defense lawyers and prosecutors prior to Carroll's October trial seeking her testimony, but she was too busy with work to call back. She said she agreed to appear Thursday after getting a personal call from Carroll, whom she described as a "longtime friend."

Smith testified that the notary stamp on the 17 affidavits was hers, but not the signatures. She said she didn't know who had signed her name, and she acknowledged that she had left her notary stamp in Carroll's office when she moved to Denver.

Mary Jayne Savage -- another former employee also called for the first time as a defense witness on Thursday -- testified that the affidavits were training documents that were not meant to be filed in court. But her credibility was questioned under cross-examination from Staudaher.

When Staudaher pressed Savage to explain whether she had anything to do with putting the documents together, she simply stopped talking and would not answer any more questions.

Cadish temporarily excused Savage from the courtroom, and outside her presence spoke of getting her a lawyer to protect her from self-incrimination. Staudaher accused Savage of lying, but with the approval of both sides the judge opted instead to cut short her testimony.

Cadish set a case status check for Jan. 26, and warned Carroll, who is free on $35,000 bail, that he could face additional charges.