HOUSTON – Priscilla Slade, the former president of financially troubled Texas Southern University, had expensive tastes.

With an affinity for clothing and shoes from Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and St. John, Slade would sometimes spend up to $4,600 at a time at Neiman Marcus, according to court records. At TSU parties, she served Johnny Walker Blue Label, a luxury whiskey that can cost $200 or more a bottle.

She lavishly furnished her $1.2 million home with a sofa worth more than $17,800, a nearly $9,200 bed and a $5,600 coffee table.

But she may have paid for all this with money from the historically black university that has her facing a possible life sentence when she goes on trial next week.

Slade, an accounting professor and former dean of the business school, was indicted last year on two counts of misapplication of fiduciary property with a value over $200,000. Prosecutors say they plan to try her for only one of the counts.

Jury selection in her case was to begin on Monday. Among the witnesses is U.S. Housing secretary Alphonso Jackson, who was on the TSU Board of Regents when Slade was hired as president.

“The prosecution’s primary focus will be that her tastes were too extravagant for the school,” said Mike DeGeurin, Slade’s attorney.

Prosecutors say that over seven years, Slade spent more than half a million dollars to decorate, remodel and repair the homes she had during her tenure at the university.

DeGeurin said Slade did nothing wrong and there was historical precedent at TSU for the purchases his client made.

The spending scandal cost Slade her job in April 2006.

When Slade was hired in 1999 as TSU’s 10th president, the school was under fire for poor accounting practices and falling enrollment and it faced a possible merger with another state school.

Slade, as president, was credited with getting TSU’s finances in order, doubling enrollment, constructing new academic buildings and overhauling the financial aid system. She earned a salary of more than $248,000, as well as monthly allowances of $1,200 for a car and $4,000 for her home.

In November 2005, she spent more than $138,000 on landscaping for her home. Prosecutors said she also spent $61,000 on a high tech security system.

DeGeurin said while the landscaping was mistakenly charged to TSU and later repaid by Slade, all the other expenses were legitimate and if there mistakes in how the spending was approved they were not done by his client.