It was Oct. 18, 2006, when then-Eagle Mountain Mayor Brian Olsen went to the city's finance department asking how to refund a reimbursement check he got for a conference he wasn't able to attend. That same day, an investigator for the Utah County attorney's office called the mayor's office, asking to speak to him about allegations of bogus reimbursement requests.

Two days later, Olsen resigned as mayor and three days after that he was charged with seven counts of misuse of public money.

The charges stem from allegations that he submitted per diem pay and mileage reimbursement requests to the city for meetings he never attended.

At Olsen's preliminary hearing Tuesday at the 4th District Court in American Fork, a procession of witnesses testified about the former mayor's reimbursement requests and the meetings for which he requested them.

Oral arguments will be held Sept. 26, and 4th District Judge David Mortensen will decide whether to bind Olsen over for trial shortly after that. Olsen's attorney, Ron Yengich, said he would argue his client should not be bound over for trial.

Lori Jolley, an accounting clerk for the Eagle Mountain finance department whose job duties included cutting the reimbursement checks for city employees, said the mayor often requested reimbursement for mileage and per diem pay ahead of time. On Oct. 18, she said the mayor came to her and another co-worker to talk about reimbursing the city for a check he received earlier in the month.

The check was for per diem pay and mileage to Springdale. Jolley testified that Olsen said he was unable to attend a conference there because his wife was ill, and the mayor ended up cutting the city a check for $926.

Jolley said that Olsen was acting nervous during that discussion, saying things like, "You know this is going to look pretty bad," and "I have a lot of enemies."

Angie Ferre, Olsen's former executive assistant who usually submitted his reimbursement requests, testified that she attended a meeting at American Fork Hospital in his stead on Feb. 16. She said Olsen submitted a reimbursement request for the meeting, saying that he had attended earlier in the day.

"He got a little bit defensive with me and said, 'No, I went to that meeting earlier in the day,' " Ferre said.

Cynthia Soderquist, an administrative assistant at the hospital who took minutes at the Feb. 16 meeting, said Olsen did not attend. She also said there was no meeting earlier in the day that he could have attended.

"I was there and recorded each person that came into the room," she said.

Others testified about Olsen's presence at meetings for which he submitted reimbursement requests. Michael Wren, Olsen's former chief of staff, said he attended a groundbreaking ceremony at the Jordanelle Dam that was listed among Olsen's reimbursement requests.

"I did not see him there," Wren said.

Kathie Hatch testified that Olsen did not sign the roll at an August meeting of the Utah Lake Study Committee where she took the minutes.

"He did not sign the roll, and I did not observe someone coming in late that might have been him," she said.

Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it