Jurors in the Nancy Workman trial were presented with two different pictures of the former Salt Lake County mayor in opening statements Wednesday.

With Workman looking on from the defense table, special prosecutor Mike Martinez said she "blurred the line between her own responsibilities and the county's responsibilities" in using county money to hire two accounting employees for the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Valley — employees who were supervised by Workman's daughter, Aisza Wilde.

The health department funds that Workman used to pay the employees "were misused for the benefit of her daughter," Martinez said, and Workman engaged in a "cover-up" when the arrangement was brought to light.

Martinez also accused Wilde of lying to investigators when they interviewed her last year regarding the matter.

Wilde told investigator Craig Watson last year that she hired the first employee in July 2003, when she in fact hired her in December 2002. She maintains that she simply had a faulty recollection.

"I believed I was telling the truth, (but) it turned out he (Watson) was right," she said.

While Workman defense attorney Jack Morgan conceded there were irregularities in the hirings, he said rather than anything criminal there was a "line of miscommunication" between Workman and her subordinates.

"There was no conspiracy," Morgan said. "There is a difference between a series of missteps and knowingly and intentionally misappropriating county funds. . . . Sometimes the ball is going to get dropped. It just happens sometimes."

Morgan said the county had given money to the Boys and Girls Club previously and that, at most, Workman is guilty of not following through to eliminate errors and ensure the hirings were conducted by the book.

"She delegates, then it goes away — it falls off the radar," he said.

As his first witness, Martinez called Wilde herself, who testified regarding the details of hiring accountant Alina Iorga and her replacement, Jennifer Schroder, and how the county became involved in the arrangement.

Specifically, Wilde said she hired Iorga as a part-time accountant for the Boys and Girls Club in December 2002. Six months later, following a conversation between Wilde and Workman, the mayor arranged for the county to chip in $400 a week for Iorga to go full-time.

"The mayor said she had recently heard of an employee loan program," Wilde said. She said that the dual-salary arrangement was reached only after Workman spoke with chief administrative officer David Marshall to see if it could work.

Morgan said it was Marshall, not Workman, who suggested that health department money be used to fund the employees after a "miscommunication" occurred between Workman and Marshall regarding the nature of the position. (Marshall, who is scheduled to testify in the trial, has said it was his understanding that Iorga was to be a health department community liaison.)

Martinez spent most of his two-hour questioning of Wilde stressing the strange way the employees were paid: Iorga and Schroder would fill out a weekly time card for the Boys and Girls Club, reporting 15 hours of work at $8 per hour, and another time card for the county, reporting 40 hours of work at $10 per hour.

While Martinez implied that Wilde used the arrangement as a way of keeping hidden the true situation, Wilde said she did it in consultation with Boys and Girls Club director Bob Dunn and that, while clumsy, it was the best way to go about it.

The trial continues today.

---

E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com