Jury Deliberating Verdict of Ex-NCED Executive Gets Weekend Off

After a day of reviewing evidence, the jury in the public corruption trial of former NCED executive Ernie Lopez will resume their deliberations Monday morning.

The case went to the jury at 10 a.m. Friday, immediately following closing arguments.

Lopez, the former chief operating officer of NCED, is accused of helping his company defraud the government of millions of dollars while working for the company.

Seventy-five percent of the workload at NCED was supposed to be handled by severely disabled employees but it was not.

Lopez told the jury he was under the impression that it was OK the numbers weren’t accurate because the numbers were being manipulated before he even worked for NCED.

The defense said Lopez is the fall guy for Bob Jones, the former President and CEO of NCED, who told Lopez to fix the numbers.

Jones has since taken a plea deal.

“Maybe the most convenient person to prosecute is not the right person to prosecute,” a defense attorney said.

This is the first of many trials to come connected with the federal government’s public corruption investigation.