Former police officer indicted on charges of perjury, filing false documents

A Clark County grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday against the owner of an unlicensed process serving company at the center of an alleged scheme to file false affidavits in court.

Maurice Carroll, a 41-year-old former Las Vegas police officer, was charged with 35 felony counts stemming from the filing of 17 alleged false affidavits of service in May and June.

The charges, which include perjury, filing false documents and obtaining money under false pretenses, repeat those in a criminal complaint filed against Carroll in Las Vegas Justice Court last month. Prosecutors sought the grand jury indictment to move the case directly to District Court and to avoid a potential conflict of interest for Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure, who has been presiding over the preliminary phase of the case. One of Bonaventure's colleagues, Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa, is listed among the witnesses who testified before the grand jury.

The criminal complaint now will be dismissed, and Carroll is to be arraigned in District Court at 9 a.m. on Monday. The case was randomly assigned to District Judge Elissa Cadish.

Carroll, who owns On Scene Mediations, is accused of lying in sworn affidavits claiming to have served defendants with copies of court papers in Justice Court lawsuits filed by Richland Holdings. The affidavits allowed the debt collection agency to obtain default judgments against the defendants after they failed to respond to the lawsuits.

Vilisia Coleman, 46, the office manager for On Scene Mediations, has been charged in a separate criminal complaint on allegations that she lied in affidavits in cases involving Richland Holdings. Prosecutors are also expected to take her case to a grand jury.

Both defendants are free on bail.

Las Vegas police are looking to corroborate allegations that Carroll and his process servers also lied in court affidavits to bolster lawsuits filed by payday loan company Rapid Cash.

Justice Court officials also are gearing up to conduct a review of almost 20,000 default judgments that Rapid Cash and Richland Holdings have obtained since 2004. The officials seek to determine whether the rights of any of the defendants were violated. On Scene Mediations has been operating as an unlicensed process server since 2003.

This week a lawyer for Rapid Cash withdrew applications in Las Vegas Justice Court for 20 default judgments linked to On Scene Mediations.

Caleb Langsdale told Saragosa that Rapid Cash was essentially starting the legal process over in those cases because of the allegations swirling around Carroll and his company.

Langsdale said he had filed new lawsuits to recover debts against the defendants and hired a new process serving company to get copies of those suits to the defendants.

Contact reporter Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135 or read more courts coverage at lvlegalnews.com.