LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Former Craighead County Clerk Kade Holliday is set to stand trial in federal court next month.
The Jonesboro Sun reports in a brief hearing last week, Holliday pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of wire fraud, records show. He faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and three years of supervised release per count.
Federal prosecutors allege Holliday, 32, of Jonesboro, transferred county funds to personal banking accounts 11 times from Jan. 29 and June 24. He then cashed cashier’s checks for the exact amounts that were misappropriated.
Nearly $1.6 million of public funds that Arkansas State Police and the FBI claim Holliday stole are also the subject of a criminal case and civil suit in Craighead County Circuit Court. Circuit Judge Richard Lusby approved in September a settlement award of $1.4 million, plus interest and legal fees.
Charges were also filed against him on suspicion of forging a Jonesboro woman’s signature on a liquor license application and stealing nearly $14,000 from the Northeast Arkansas Leadership and Business Council.
The federal jury trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 25 in E.C. Gathings United State Courthouse in Jonesboro. He was not detained as part of his pretrial release.
The federal criminal case will be prosecuted by Allison Bragg. Holliday’s attorney Dustin McDaniel has indicated he is certain the trial will be postponed, as several criminal proceedings have during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“(Wednesday’s) hearing was one of many procedural steps in the federal prosecution. … The state case, the federal case and the bankruptcy case are thus far proceeding as expected,” McDaniel told The Sun in an email.
Holliday is scheduled to enter his plea in the state cases in late February, and the criminal trial is set to start in March, records show.
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