Bias fear spurs venue plea

PROVO — A former Brigham Young University finance officer accused of stealing money from the LDS Church-owned school says faithful members of the state's largest religion are too biased in favor of the school to judge evidence fairly at trial.

In a motion filed Monday in 4th District Court, the attorney for John S. Davis says the majority of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would automatically favor the private university in a legal case.

According to the court papers, that's because a portion of tithing given to the church by members is allocated to BYU.

Davis' defense attorney, Fred Keller, asked that the trial be moved to Summit County or Salt Lake County, which have fewer LDS Church members than Utah County. Nearly 90 percent of Utah County residents are members of the LDS Church.

The attorney prosecuting Davis' case called the arguments in the motion "constitutionally and legally repugnant."

"I'm a little taken aback," said Deputy Utah County Attorney David Wayment.

Wayment said he was surprised that a motion would be made to move a trial in order to avoid a certain religious population.

Keller said the argument isn't about religious discrimination. It is about securing a fair trial for Davis, he said.

Davis is charged with seven second-degree felony counts of theft and one second-degree count of racketeering for allegedly embezzling more than $300,000 from BYU.

Prosecutors say that Davis, who worked as a manager of student collections, funneled collections fees totaling $306,000 to a shell corporation between 1995 and 2001.

BYU officials fired Davis in May 2001 after conducting an internal financial audit.

University officials then turned the case over to the county attorney.

In response to concerns that Davis would not get a fair trial in Utah County because of a perceived bias toward BYU, Wayment proposes moving the trial to Juab or Wasatch counties. Utah, Juab and Millard counties make up Utah's 4th Judicial District.

But Keller said Juab and Wasatch counties have LDS populations of 84 percent or higher. Keller proposed moving the case to Summit County, which has an estimated LDS population of 37 percent.