Lawyer blames Florida voucher money theft on bad record-keeping...like that $35,000 hummer?

[madfloridian]

This case has been going on for years. This is an example of the dangers of mixing public school money with religion....with officials just looking away and ignoring it.

Defense lawyers say school workers were bad record-keepers, not criminals.

The suspected scam involved the private religious schools Faith Christian Academy in Bartow and Cathedral of Faith Christian Academy in Lakeland.

The family members are accused of bilking the state voucher system of approximately $200,000 by, among other things, submitting fake receipts for school lunches never served and by claiming many more students were enrolled in the school than actually were there.

..."According to Assistant State Attorney Wayne Durden, the family billed the federal government $9,000 for lunches served in June and July 2003, when the school wasn't in session. They also collected $65,000 from another federal grant program for lunches, and withdrew $18,000 in cash and then another $25,000 in cash from that program. It is not known what they spent most of the cash on, but they appear to have used the $25,000 for bail money when they were arrested in the fraud case on June 29, 2004, Durden said.

In the summer of 2003, Betty Mitchell purchased a used 2003 Hummer H2 with $35,000 in cash that was taken from state scholarship funds, according to Durden.

The state has also alleged that Nealy bought a 1990 Lexus L400 in December 2003 using cash that was deposited into the account of Restoration NOW ministries, which is run by the family. The students were disabled and exceptional-education students, and the state paid the school a certain amount of money per child who attended.

The more recent articles fail to mention that the owner was once tried for murder. Case was dismissed, but even though it is not relevant to the court case....how did the person get such access to state voucher money? What criteria existed?

Principal once tried for poisoning death of husband

BARTOW -- The private-school principal accused of stealing state voucher money via the now defunct Faith Christian Academy had once been tried for the murder of her husband in Arkansas.
Betty Mae Jives Mitchell, then Betty Clark, and Louise Henry were accused in 1987 of poisoning Mitchell's former husband, Thomas Joseph Clark, with arsenic in Crittenden County, Ark. The trial ended in a hung jury, and the state dropped its case against the pair.

They are pushing good teachers here to their limit in attempts to "hold them accountable"....while throwing good public school money into such programs as this. Ultimate "accountability" for teachers....delayed and belated "accountability" for those who buy $35,000 hummers with public school money.

[rodeodance]

1. Petraeus says poor record keeping accounts for the millions of LOST guns also.

[madfloridian]

5. Just any old excuse.

:hi:

[lyonn]

2. Example of faith based religious schools and voucher

Most don't want special people to get special privileges 'cause they are faith based using the State or Federal tax dollar. A million years ago I attended schools in the Calif. public system. Was raised there. Looking back it was good. Our teachers were able to ask us questions and try to make us think of the various answers/options. One teacher in a mountain town school asked us in about the 5th or 6th grade about the McCarthy (they were being held at that time) hearings and asked how we could prove that we were not something we were accused of, communist for instance. That was one of the few things I remember from school, as I wasn't a good student and changed schools a lot. The schools even touched on evolution. None of this seems to be happening in our school systems now. They are not teaching the kids to think, consider different options in a subject. Many kids are lazy, like I was, and need inspiration. Ask the kids questions, and allow discussions. Oklahoma has a way to go before their system can improve. Mention abortion in schools and the fur flies. My theory is some religions are there to keep people in line, do as I say, not as I do.

My granddaughter lived with me for a couple of year prior to graduating high school and one day she related, it was the beginning of year, how this teacher was giving her opinion on something political and g-daughter disagreed. I told her she probably made a mistake, being new and all, and she was confident that she was entitled to her view on the subject. Well, this teacher must have appreciated a kid that stood up, apparently respectfully, for their ideas and explained them. They got along better than most of the student in the class as the teacher did have 'issues'. Kids generally are smart. Get them interested, discuss both sides, and keep religion in the churches where they belong. Otherwise, take the tax breaks away. This subject gets me haired up, obviously.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Only in Florida is Incompetence considered an Affirmative Defense.

More good ole boy bullshit. That lawyer should get disbarred.

Here's a new term that will right all the wrongs committed by Florida's good ole boys & gals: "Wilful failure to know."

[madfloridian]

4. Heh heh...that is well said. Actually you are right.

And I never thought about that. It's a good thing to be incompetent, better than just stealing. :evilgrin:

[YDogg]

6. Not exactly good ol' boys

but it is bullshizzit

[RB TexLa]

7. Public schools submit false lunch numbers for that as well

Other stuff seems to be some people working their own criminal enterprise. Criminals do their business in private, public and religious sectors.

[madfloridian]

8. They can't reach a verdict? How can they not reach a verdict?

No Verdict Yet in Voucher Fraud Trial

A jury couldn’t reach a verdict Tuesday in the trial of two sisters accused of using their family??s private school to steal money from Florida’s voucher system and other state and federal programs.

Jurors were sent home about 4 p.m. and will return to the Polk County Courthouse today to continue deliberating in the case of Betty Mae Mitchell and Jeannette Nealy.

Prosecutors contend the sisters and other family members bilked the state voucher system of approximately $200,000 by, among other things, submitting fake receipts for school lunches never served and by claiming many more students were enrolled in the school than actually were there.

They were buying expensive cars with the voucher money. This is the 2nd trial. What is going on here? From the OP:

"In the summer of 2003, Betty Mitchell purchased a used 2003 Hummer H2 with $35,000 in cash that was taken from state scholarship funds, according to Durden.

The state has also alleged that Nealy bought a 1990 Lexus L400 in December 2003 using cash that was deposited into the account of Restoration NOW ministries, which is run by the family. The students were disabled and exceptional-education students, and the state paid the school a certain amount of money per child who attended."

[TheMadMonk]

9. What is going on here? It only take one idiot with the god bug...

...up his arse to hang a jury. (or 2 or 3 idiots in states which allow majority verdict).

Might also be why the attempted murder trial finished with the same result.