BELLEFONTE -- J. David James was ordered yesterday to stand trial for allegedly taking money intended for USG bus trips and international student identification cards last semester.

James, the suspended Undergraduate Student Government Senate vice president, is charged with taking about $280 in cash and checks from the USG office on Nov. 21 and another $570 in cash and checks on Dec. 14. James allegedly took the funds and deposited them in a commercial bank account called "United Sanguinary Gladiators," police records indicate.

During preliminary testimony in the Centre County Courthouse before District Justice Robert Shoff, USG office secretary Donna Royer said she had locked funds for the international student identification cards in a file cabinet in the USG office, 203 HUB, on Nov. 21. She said some USG senators, including James and USG Senate President Ron Marlow, were in the office looking at clippings from another cabinet when she left.

Royer said James told her he was the last person to leave the office.

The cabinet with the money was unlocked and about $280 in cash and checks was discovered missing the next morning, Royer said. She said nothing else was disturbed or taken.

Royer said she believes she holds the only key to the cabinet.

Regarding the Dec. 14 incident, USG Director of Business Jennifer Bronzini testified that $570 in cash and checks for student Christmas bus trips was discovered taken from her office. She said that she had locked the funds in a cabinet, and then locked her office before she left on that day. Bronzini said James was in the USG office at the time.

On Dec. 15, the office door was found unlocked and the cabinet door had been bent open, Bronzini said. She said USG Treasurer Steven Lauser also has a key to the office but only she has a key to the cabinet.

Both thefts were reported to police on Dec. 15.

University Police Officer Mark Stringer, who is investigating the case, testified that a People's National Bank account book under the name "United Sanguinary Gladiators" was found during a search of James' apartment, 228 S. Allen St., on Jan. 4.

State College Bureau of Police Services Investigator Thomas Jordan, who helped with the search, testified that James cooperated after he was read his rights and told the reason for the search. Deposit slips for the account were also found in the apartment, Jordan said.

Both Jordan and Stringer said that many of the checks' memos indicated something relating to Christmas bus trips or student identification cards and that all of the checks they inspected had the "United Sanguinary Gladiators" account number on them and were made out to "USG." They said James' signature was not on any of the checks they have seen.

Bradley P. Lunsford, attorney for the defense, claimed the forgery charges against James should be dropped because his name was not on the checks. Also, James' presence in the USG office and the subsequent thefts is purely coincidental, he said.

Lunsford did not call James or any witnesses to testify on behalf of the defense.

Assistant District Attorney Jeff Yates argued that the evidence is more than circumstantial, since the individual checks made out to USG had been deposited in James' "United Sanguinary Gladiators" bank account.

A trial date has not been set.