Pretrials begin today at the DeKalb County Courthouse for NIU marketing professor David Richard Rink, who was arrested and charged with two counts of fraud Sept. 1.

NIU Legal Counselor George Shur said, “My understanding is that this hearing is to set up a timetable for the case. What is involved is a period of discovery for the attorneys.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Duke Harris and William Brady, defense attorney for Rink, could not be reached for comment.

At Rink’s preliminary hearing Sept. 24, the court found probable cause in connection with the charges, which include to “knowingly possess with the intent to deliver,” and to “knowingly make,” a document “apparently capable of defrauding another,” records stated.

The court determined that a crime was committed if accusations that Rink forged a fictitious birth certificate are found to be true.

Judge Richard Larson said the court’s ruling was based on the decision that the fraudulent birth certificates were capable of defrauding another person.

A birth certificate for a Timothy David Richard along with a social security card application form from the Elgin Social Security Office and some notes partially written in shorthand were discovered in Rink’s home Aug. 17 by Detective Mark Brictson of the Elgin Police Department.

The birth certificate was purportedly issued by the Greenbriar County Health Department in Lewisburg, W. Va. and had a stamped signature of a Dr. Stanely Reedy.

Brictson tesitified at the preliminary hearing that he had met with Loretta Mickiewicz, a clerk from the AAA Rubber Stamp Co. Mickiewicz called the Elgin police after becoming suspicious of a man using the name David Richard, who wanted a rubber stamp for Reedy’s signature and for the seal of the Greenbriar County’s Health Commissioner’s office.

Brictson said Mickiewicz and her daughter verified from photos that the man was Rink.