Ex-cybersecurity head bound over on two felony counts

Nevada's former head of cybersecurity has been bound over for trial on two felony counts stemming from a trip he took to a homeland security conference in Denver.

Randy Potts will face one count of theft and one of falsifying a public record in Carson District Court. Both are category C felonies that each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Potts submitted $1,757 in expenses for the trip at the end of November 2005. But investigators say there was no such conference. According to charges, Potts submitted a falsified flier describing the conference to justify the trip at state expense, but the actual conference had been held six months earlier.

Department of Information Technology Director Terry Savage has filed paperwork to terminate Potts because of the allegations.

The criminal complaint filed by Attorney General's Investigator Wayne Fazzino accuses Potts of submitting a falsified request for state funding to attend the third annual meeting of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center in Denver. It says there was no such meeting in Denver in November 2005, and that the actual meeting was held in April in another state.

A preliminary hearing on the charges this week in Carson Justice Court found sufficient evidence to order the case to district court for criminal proceedings.

No date has yet been set for trial but Andre Boles, representing Potts, said when the charges were originally filed he would prove them "unfounded and bizarre."

"We do not expect him to be terminated and, as for the criminal matter, we'll see what happens when we put him in front of 12," Boles said referring to a jury trial.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.