A Missouri State Representative’s federal court trial has been moved to June 2022.
The trial for Nixa Republican Tricia Derges was scheduled to begin Monday at a federal courthouse in southwest Missouri’s Springfield. Don Ledford, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Missouri, says a witness suffered a stroke and the attorney for Derges says the witness needs to be cross-examined during the trial. That means Derges will still be under a federal indictment during all of the next legislative session.
Derges has been charged with 23 felony counts in two separate alleged fraud schemes connected to the medical and dental clinics she operates in Springfield, Branson, and Ozark. Charges accuse Derges of selling fake stem cell treatments at her clinics – a scheme totaling about 200-thousand-dollars. Other charges allege that she fraudulently received about $300,000 in federal coronavirus aid. She has maintained her innocence and refuses to resign.
