Employee of Process-Serving Company Indicted

In a rare action, the office manager of an embattled process serving company was indicted Wednesday on a felony charge of filing a false notary public application with the Nevada secretary of state's office.

The charge is part of a nine-count indictment against Vilisia Coleman in the growing scandal tied to her unlicensed company, On Scene Mediations, which is accused of filing false affidavits of service in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Secretary of State Ross Miller said his notary administrator, Laura Ethridge, has never seen anyone prosecuted criminally for filing a false application during her 21 years overseeing the notary process.

"The fact that we were able to bring forward charges is significant," said Miller whose office has assisted Las Vegas police with their investigation of On Scene Mediations. "I believe that this type of notary fraud is relatively common, but undetected. We largely lack the resources to effectively enforce these statutes."

Miller said his office can seek to revoke Coleman's notary appointment, but won't take action until the criminal case concludes.

The eight other charges against the 46-year-old Coleman, which include perjury and filing false court documents, are the same as those in a criminal complaint filed against her earlier this month. That complaint will be dismissed, and Coleman, who is free on bond, will be arraigned in District Court on the new charges on Sept. 1.

The notary charge follows an Aug. 11 Las Vegas Review-Journal story that questioned whether Coleman lied about her criminal past when she filled out her application with the secretary of state. When asked whether she had ever been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude, she checked the "No" box, officials told the newspaper.

But records show that she was sentenced to three years of probation for felony cocaine possession in 2006 and was ordered to undergo drug treatment.

She also has a gross misdemeanor conviction for attempted grand larceny at a Walmart in 2001. In that case, she was charged with violating her two-year probation in 2003 and ordered to spend eight months behind bars at the Clark County Detention Center.


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