Trial date set for suspect facing terrorism, weapons of mass destruction charges
LAS VEGAS (KSNV News3LV) — A trial date has been set for a Las Vegas man indicted last week on charges of terrorism and unlawful acts related to weapons of mass destruction.
Nicolai Mork, 40, made his initial court appearance this morning before Judge Jennifer Togliatti at the Regional Justice Center. He entered a not guilty plea. His trial is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. June 5.
Mork was indicted April 5 and brought into custody later that night at his home near Maryland and Pyle in southwest Las Vegas.
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Defense attorney Nicholas Wooldridge is seeking to reduce Mork’s $8 million bail. A motion hearing on that matter is scheduled for April 25.
Police said during their investigation they also found child porn on Mork's home computer and videos of the suspect beating a woman.
The report also says Mork placed a hidden camera in a bag he carried to record underneath women's skirts or dresses.
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Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said last week his office is concentrating on the dangerous weapon and chemical compounds found at Mork's home.
"When you potentially have the ability and perhaps the desire to cause massive explosions that could cause a lot of harm to a lot of people, that's terroristic absolutely," he said.
Wolfson called Mork, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dangerous and a serious threat to the community.
In court today, Wooldridge said that his client is not a flight risk or a danger to the community. Wooldridge says the explosive material called tannerite is used for binary targets to shoot in the desert. He says the discovered devices could be easily put out.
“The majority of these so called devices, they were put out with a garden hose, a neighbor's garden hose. That's what we're dealing with here, that's what the state has labeled terrorism" said Wooldridge. "If that's a weapon of mass destruction that you can find legally online, that you can purchase or go to almost any gun store and buy tannerite and go out in the desert and explode it, I think it's an overreach. I think he's been overcharged."
