"We had a reasonable doubt," jury forewoman Nancy Salanoa said Thursday after the 4th District Court trial, where Olsen was acquitted on seven counts of misusing public funds. In her opinion, Olsen wasn't the real criminal.

"We think the 'person' who needed to be investigated is Eagle Mountain. The whole city needs to be investigated," Salanoa, an Orem resident, said.

And juror Shaun Corbridge said prosecutors overreacted by filing criminal charges against Olsen for what seemed to be clerical errors.

"It was a minor oversight. There was tons of reasonable doubt," said Corbridge, who lives in Lehi.

Prosecutors had maintained that Olsen asked for travel-expense advances for trips he clearly knew he wasn't taking. One of the allegations involved a water-law conference in Springdale in October 2006.

For that, Olsen asked his administrative assistant, Angie Ferre, to get him a check to cover the mileage for driving to and from the conference each day - a 600-mile round trip - as well as money to cover meals and other daily expenses.

Olsen didn't attend, and already had an appointment to meet with developer Monte Kingman in town that day. Olsen testified in court that he had merely asked Ferre to calculate the expense so he could see if he wanted to go to the conference.

He did reimburse the city for that payment, but prosecutors said that was a day after their investigator told him he was being investigated for misusing public funds.

Ron Yengich, Olsen's attorney, said the jury did its job, and he believes that putting Olsen on the stand bolstered his thesis that Olsen, a former Utah Highway Patrol trooper with a degree in international studies from Brigham Young University, only did what his office staff told him to do.

"It showed, as I said in closing argument, that he lets people lead him in minor matters," Yengich said, adding that he had to remind Olsen on the witness stand that he reimbursed the city on more than one occasion for overpayments.

Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander said the verdict was tough, but he would accept it.

"If you look at the facts, the stipulated facts, he never attended the events," Grunander said. "He did this knowingly."

Olsen wiped tears from his eyes after the verdicts were read, and hugged family and friends.

"The system does work," Olsen said, "and "Eagle Mountain is still a good place to live." He said he wished the city administration well.

dmeyers@sltrib.com