Jury selection began Thursday in the federal criminal trial of Terry Diehl, a politically-connected developer and onetime Utah Transit Authority board member accused of lying in a bankruptcy case from 2012.
First indicted last April on 12 felony counts, Diehl will be tried on only on one charge, after prosecutors went back to a grand jury three times in the past 30 days to reduce the charges.
A grand jury handed up the last of those changes Wednesday.
Diehl now faces a single count of making false statements, a charge that could land him in federal prison for five years if he is convicted.
Opening statements in the trial are scheduled for Monday and the trial is expected to last 10 days.
Diehl entered a not guilty plea to the charge Thursday morning before U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups, just minutes before jury selection began.
A jury of 13 is expected to be empaneled. One will be an alternate who will hear, but not deliberate the case.
Out of concern over pretrial publicity, the court called a pool of 56 potential jurors, asking them a battery of questions about their professions, home life, associations with law enforcement and what kind of bumper stickers — if any — are affixed to their vehicles.
Potential jurors were also asked two questions that go right to the heart of the case: Whether they were aware of any controversies involving Diehl and UTA; and if they believed filing bankruptcy was either inherently, or morally wrong.
Prosecutors contend Diehl broke the law when he failed to disclose an association with Skyline Ventures Associates (SVA) on an initial statement of financial affairs when he filed bankruptcy.
The indictment says SVA was set up by Diehl in late 2011 and listed his two daughters as the registered owners, even though Diehl himself managed and controlled the company, including its bank accounts.
Charging documents say Diehl directed which funds went in and out of SVA accounts. Not all of those funds were disclosed to Diehl’s creditors, court papers say.
Earlier iterations of Diehl’s indictment pointed specifically to $1 million earned by Diehl as part of a land transaction in Draper near a UTA FrontRunner station site.
Diehl — then on the UTA board — and a business partner purchased the property in 2010 with a $10 million loan from the agency he helped oversee.
The transaction was the subject of two scathing legislative audits and two criminal investigations; first by the Utah attorney general’s office and later by the Utah FBI office.
The latter probe is reportedly ongoing.