Faulkner County Circuit Judge Charles E. Clawson Jr. ruled in favor of former UCA Chief of Staff Jack Gillean’s motion for a change of venue.

Gillean’s trial will move to Van Buren County from Faulkner County because of pretrial publicity.

In a letter to Faulkner County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland and Tim Dudley, one of Gillean’s three attorneys, explaining his ruling to move the trial Clawson said that up until President Tom Courtway’s appointment, UCA had gone through a period where multiple “higher level officials” were involved in the criminal justice system, including former presidents Lu Hardin and Allen Meadors.

“These events have brought, what the court would suspect, to be unwanted publicity to the university and would also create an environment where this defendant would be in a situation that his responsibility for any criminal actions could be tainted by the public’s perception of the past few years,” Clawson said.

Gillean, 55, was charged with four felony offenses and a misdemeanor offense Oct. 5.

Three of the four felony charges were counts of commercial burglary, which relates to the accusations that Gillean gave former student Cameron Stark his master keys and ID so that Stark could steal tests from professors’ offices and medication from former Assistant Director of Scholarships Andrew Linn. He received an additional felony charge for fraudulent insurance acts and a misdemeanor for issuing a false financial statement.

Stark was granted limited immunity in the case for his cooperation.

Gillean, who initially said he would turn himself over to authorities Oct. 8, 2012, turned himself in to Faulkner County police at about 8:45 a.m. Oct. 10 and left on a $17,500 bail.

Gillean resigned abruptly from UCA on June 15, 2012.

After Gillean’s pretrial hearing May 10, Dudley said he was glad Clawson would consider granting Gillean’s motion. He said he would prefer for Clawson to move the case to Searcy County, because residents of Searcy County showed they had fewer opinions on the case, according to surveys by Opinion Research Associates, Inc.

Dudley said Ernie Oakleaf, Opinion Research Associates, Inc. co-founder, was paid $9,000 to conduct surveys in Faulkner, Searcy and Van Buren counties.

Oakleaf said 106 individuals who were registered voters were interviewed in each county.

Surveys were conducted in Faulkner County on April 8, in Searcy County on April 17 and in Van Buren County on April 11.

“You can’t guarantee anyone a perfect trial but we can do our best to try to give the defendant the best trial that we can,” Dudley said. “Almost 60 percent of jurors in Faulkner County have read or heard about the defendant. Close to 40 percent of those have already determined he’s guilty. The numbers are a little better, but not too much better, in Van Buren County; they’re much better in Searcy [County]. Why wouldn’t do everything we can to make sure he gets a fair trial?”

According to the surveys, 56 percent of Faulkner County residents had read about or watched coverage of UCA officials facing criminal charges over the past year. In Searcy County, 31 percent of residents had read about or watched coverage against UCA officials and 41 percent of residents in Van Buren County had read or viewed coverage.

Fifty-six percent of Faulkner County residents had discussed charges against UCA officials with their family and friends. In Searcy County, 18 percent said they had discussed criminal charges against UCA officials and 42 percent in Van Buren County had discussed charges.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Troy Braswell said it is not necessary for the jury to be “totally ignorant” of the case as long as they can set aside their opinions and base their verdict solely on the evidence.

It was misleading for the survey not to include Gillean’s name, he said.

“Not one time did any of the questions [Gillean’s] $9,000 expert asked is ‘even if you have made up your opinion, even if you have read something can you set that aside and could you be a fair juror?’” Braswell said. “None of those questions were asked. We know [the defendants]could have asked any question they wanted because when Oakleaf submitted questions to the defendants, the defendants specifically took out the defendant’s name. That is huge in this situation.”

According to Oakleaf’s surveys, 56 percent of Faulkner County residents did not discuss charges against UCA officials with family and friends, 82 percent of Searcy County residents did not discuss charges against UCA officials and 58 percent of Van Buren County residents did not discuss UCA criminal cases.

Clawson said Gillean’s burglary charges will be tried first and set a pretrial date that “we may or may not use” for 9 a.m. June 3. He said in his letter to Hiland and Dudley that he would have available time in early November for a trial.

The judge ordered prosecutors to provide Gillean with specifics pertaining to when and where each alleged burglary took place. Prosecutors must also disclose names of witnesses they expect to call to testify and any physical evidence they plan to use against Gillean before the June 3 pretrial.