Ex-mayor's assistant testifies

AMERICAN FORK — Thirty-seven pieces of evidence in the form of mileage sheets and copies of checks were presented Tuesday afternoon in the case of a former Eagle Mountain mayor accused of misusing public money.

Brian Brent Olsen, 35, will be in court again Sept. 26 on seven felony charges that stem from employee concerns that he was falsifying travel reimbursements during his 10-month tenure as the mayor of Eagle Mountain. Olsen resigned Oct. 20, 2006.

Angie Ferre, who worked as an executive assistant to Olsen, testified Tuesday during a preliminary hearing in 4th District Court in American Fork.

Ferre said she was asked to handle Olsen's reimbursements by going through his calendar each week and calculating milage to and from his meetings, based on numbers from mapquest.com.

Olsen would sign and stamp the requests and Ferre would send them to the city's finance department where the reimbursement check was cut.

One such request was for a multiday conference in Springdale, Washington County, in October.

"Do you know if the mayor actually attended the Springdale conference?" asked prosecutor Chad Grunander.

"I know on the Thursday that he didn't attend," Ferre said. "As I was leaving (my house) his car was still parked in the driveway."

But defense attorney Ron Yengich asked if Ferre had any other indication that the mayor didn't go to the conference.

"Did you see the mayor at either his house or anywhere in Utah County on that Thursday?" Yengich asked.

"No," Ferre said. "I got a call from city staff that he was at the City Hall that Thursday, but I personally did not see him physically, no."

Ferre said she only questioned Olsen about his mileage request when he asked for reimbursement for attending a meeting at the American Fork Hospital on Feb. 16, 2006.

"He did not attend that meeting because he asked me to attend that meeting," Ferre said. "He was not there."

Ferre said Olsen became "defensive" when she asked him if he had made a mistake. He replied that he had attended the hospital's meeting earlier in the day.

However, Cynthia Soderquist, an administrative assistant from the American Fork Hospital, testified there had not been an earlier meeting, and that Olsen had not attended the 6 p.m. meeting.

Employees also said Olsen would frequently submit requests in advance for conferences, such as the Utah Water Law conference in early October 2006.

Lori Jolley, an accounting clerk in the finance department of the city, said she came in after hours one night in October to create a check for Olsen, who said he needed the money before he left for the conference.

Nearly two weeks later, Olsen came into Jolley's office to talk.