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Jonathan Davis has been imploring the government for years to either charge him with a crime, move forward with its forfeiture case against him or return his more than $4 million in seized assets.

The Dallas-area businessman finally got his wish, but not the outcome he had hoped for. A federal grand jury in Dallas indicted him last week, more than three years after agents seized his assets, and he now faces a possible life sentence if convicted.

The 13-count indictment accuses Davis of making false or misleading statements about his Garland heating and air-conditioning trade school to the government. He is charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. The now-defunct Retail Ready Career Center received about $70 million in G.I. Bill money, making it one of the biggest recipients for a trade school.

Davis lawyer, Derek Staub, says the indictment amounts to allegations of civil regulatory violations, not crimes, and that three years of investigation yielded no evidence of wrongdoing.

This whole indictment stems from them saying that we werent forthcoming on an application, Staub said. They are just flat-out wrong.

But the U.S. attorneys office said Davis scammed the VA out of more than $71 million in veterans benefits.

The defendant allegedly lied to multiple governmental agencies, said office spokeswoman Erin Dooley. We are confident the evidence will prove our case. To undermine the VA is to insult the sacrifices of military veterans nationwide.

Those comments set the stage for what is likely to be a hotly-contested case. Davis, 43, voluntarily surrendered on Nov. 23. He pleaded not guilty the same day and was released pending trial. He faces up to 184 years in prison if convicted, the U.S. attorneys office said.

Although authorities claim Davis lied about his schools financial condition, he hasnt been accused of scamming student veterans out of an education, unlike other schools targeted by the feds in recent years. In those G.I. Bill fraud cases, prosecutors successfully proved that educational services were either not provided or were significantly less than advertised. Other cases involved fake students and sham or fly-by-night schools.

Lawmakers in Washington D.C. have debated giving the Veterans Affairs department more power to crack down on predatory for-profit schools that receive G.I. Bill funding and take advantage of veterans. Critics say oversight is lacking, and the VA is under pressure to do more to combat fraud and crack down on predatory schools targeting veterans.

The Nov. 18 indictment doesnt accuse Retail Ready of defrauding students. Staub said hes not aware of any student complaints and that on the contrary, Davis students love him. The schools graduation rate was 89%, and it had a placement rate of 81% in its final year, the company has said in court records.

The criminal allegations against Davis differ from whats alleged in the civil forfeiture suit, Staub said. He said federal officials initially claimed his client violated regulations by enrolling too many veterans. This indictment is not what has been threatened for the past three years, he said.

Staub said he believes the government rushed the indictment together at the last minute to prevent a judge from eventually dismissing the forfeiture lawsuit.

The indictment says that from May 2013 to December 2019, Davis made false statements to obtain VA approval for Retail Ready to receive G.I. Bill payments on behalf of students, and that he fraudulently persuaded veterans to enroll in his trade school.

Staub said he doesnt understand how the feds could claim the alleged scheme continued through 2019 since the school has been closed since the September 2017 raid.

How theyre saying that were still out there doing it blows my mind, he said.

Davis also is accused of lying to an accountant, resulting in a false and misleading Retail Ready financial statement. And officials say he sent false financial statements to the Texas Workforce Commission and to the Texas Veterans Commission.

Jack Ternan, another defense lawyer, said the purpose of accurate financial statements is to assure the government that a school will be able to operate. He said his client did so successfully.

They werent harmed in any way even if those things were inaccurate, Ternan said.

The indictment also says Davis misrepresented his students career prospects, and that he falsely certified to the TWC that he had no criminal cases pending against him. Hes also accused of falsely stating that Retail Ready had operated as an educational institution over a certain time.

Davis previously told The Dallas Morning News that the feds forced his school to close its doors for good, stranding many of his out-of-state students. He has filed multiple legal challenges to the civil forfeiture action that were unsuccessful. And he sued the government in September 2019 on behalf of Retail Ready, claiming, among other things, a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr, who is presiding over the forfeiture case, has denied Davis attempts to toss the lawsuit but said in a ruling last month that he would entertain another motion to dismiss in 30 days. Starr wrote that the governments delay in bringing criminal charges did not yet implicate Fifth Amendment due-process concerns.

But he added that the constitutional dynamics in forfeiture cases are in constant flux, and the balance could be different 30 days from now. The forfeiture case remains on hold until the criminal proceedings conclude.

Retail Ready, which opened in the summer of 2014, offered boot-camp style classes, where it took six weeks rather than six months for students to become HVAC technicians. Classes ran from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Students came from all over the country and some from abroad.

Davis charged the VA between $18,000 and $21,000 for each student to attend, the indictment says.

The school provided students with housing assistance at local hotels that included meals and transportation. Retail Ready trained more than 2,500 people, some of whom went on to jobs that paid more than $75,000 annually, the company has said. More than 90% of its students were veterans, school officials said, most of whom needed financial aid.

But the governments forfeiture lawsuit claims Retail Ready violated the 85-15 rule, which prohibits the VA from paying more than 85% of student enrollment costs. The rule is intended to cut down on fraud by preventing schools from only recruiting veterans in order to maximize G.I. Bill funding, according to the forfeiture lawsuit.

Government lawyers also claim in the forfeiture suit that Retail Ready awarded scholarships to students not based on financial need but to artificially meet the 15% requirement. The lead investigator has spoken with former Retail Ready employees and other insiders with knowledge of the facts, court records say.

About 300 students were enrolled when agents raided the school in 2017. The government seized all of Davis bank accounts, and his $2.3 million Dallas house is also part of the forfeiture action, court records show. So are a Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley and other luxury cars.

The schools student recruitment practices also have come under fire.

The forfeiture lawsuit alleges that Davis sister formed two companies that posted fake entry-level jobs on multiple job boards. When people responded, the companies sold those leads to Retail Ready for recruitment, according to the lawsuit.

VA regulations prohibit the use of false or misleading advertising or enrollment practices, federal authorities said. The forfeiture suit also said Retail Ready exceeded enrollment limitations and improperly paid bonuses to admissions staff.

In response, Retail Readys lawyers said the school tried to comply with numerous federal regulations and that any inaccuracies were honest mistakes.

Staub said that when he first met with the prosecutor a couple of years ago, his PowerPoint basically said You made too much money too quickly.

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Garland trade school owner charged with bilking VA out of $70 million - The Dallas Morning News

The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to decide whether a California regulation allowing union organizers to access employers property is an unconstitutional taking under the Fifth Amendment.

In the lower courts decision, Cedar Point Nursery v. Sheroma, a two-judge majority of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim by a group of employers that the regulation created uncompensated easements on their property. The California Agricultural Labor Relations Board regulation permits union organizers to use an employers property for up to three hours per day, 120 days per year, if they notify the employer in advance. The court reasoned that the regulation limits organizers access to the property, and that violating the right to exclude is not a permanent physical invasion required for a per se taking. The dissenting judge stated that allowing ongoing access to private property multiple times a day for 120 days per year is a physical occupation, and that the right to exclude is one of the most fundamental property rights. He also noted that union organizers could meet with employees outside of the employers premises and communicate with them through other means.

Given the current business-friendly makeup of the Supreme Court, we would not be surprised if it were to rule that the California regulation is an unconstitutional taking. In any event, the Supreme Courts analysis about what constitutes a per se regulatory taking may answer more general questions, such as how much access to property constitutes a taking, and how important is the right to exclude. This analysis likely will apply to laws and regulations beyond those governing union organizers use of employers property, such as laws barring property owners from evicting tenants.

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SCOTUS Will Rule on a New Takings Case - Lexology

By Richard Reeb| For the Victorville Daily Press

The widespread shutdown of millions of American lives for the past eight months is likely to continue and intensify as a change in presidential administrations looms. Critics are invariably written off as indifferent, if not hostile, to science, authority and human welfare. But the case for quartering us in our homes questionable from the start has shown itself to be anti-science, unconstitutional and cruel.

There are serious questions about the science constantly being invoked as a discussion stopper by Democratic governors and mayors around the country. Scientists diligent investigation of the world, especially of the human component, has been a great good. But science as a discipline is only as good as those professing to be scientists actually make it.

In other words, there is nothing scientific about scientists, bureaucrats, politicians or professors claiming to speak with the authority of science in the absence of proof. This pandemic was first approached with an hypothesis, as all such projects require, that this highly infectious virus could be fought successfully by a combination of strict measures.

First, there were travel bans on the virus host country, China, and then Europe; confinement in our homes;cutbacks on non-essential activities;first a rejection then a demand that we wear masks and practice social distancing;and strenuous efforts to develop a vaccine.

The pandemic challenged the best minds. Early on a difference of opinion arose between those who believed that saving even one life was worth the public sacrifice and those who saw that the solution was as bad, if not worse, than the problem. Science has been forcibly invoked to justify the former over the latter.

I am reminded of the popular definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Scientists and policy makers faced a situation for which there was not sufficient or well-established knowledge to justify using existing methods. That made dealing with it the equivalent of a huge experiment. Humanitarian concerns forbade breaking the population into control groups, one chosen for the proposed remedies and one not. That meant that, but for the different approaches in different states, one size fits all.

Despite the draconian measures chosen, the number of COVID-19 cases, illnesses and deaths has continued to grow. When President Trump tested positive and experienced real symptoms, the chattering class denounced him for his carelessness. But by that dictum, all who have tested positive are in the same category.

We know that some states and countries chose not to impose a lockdown, and which experienced no worse results than those that did. But we also know that a majorityof infected persons retain or resume good health. We also know that the oldest and sickliest among us are far more likely to suffer or die than more than 90%of the population.

I was reminded recently of the reaction that Galileo received from others in the scientific community of his day when he discovered that the Earth revolved around the sun rather than the reverse. They refused to look through his telescope! There are myriads of qualified scientists, physicians and professors who have challenged the reigning scientific hypothesis and been denounced as quacks.

As to the constitutional question, let us turn to the Fifth Amendment to the U.S.Constitution, which reads in part: no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

Is there any doubt that this constitutional right has been continually and massively violated? When people are confined to their homes, denied the right to work, run a business orassociate in a variety of causes, and been prevented from attending worship services, it is perfectly clear that their rights and the Constitutions provisions have been wantonly disregarded.

There has been a huge human cost to these ill-advised measures which the professed lovers of humanity have ignored, meaning everything from lost opportunities,jobs and failed businesses, to depression, suicide, andalcohol and drug abuse.

I was reminded last week that as bad as the blatant hypocrisy of politicians and celebrities is, as they decline to wear masks or practice social distancing, worse is the clear implication that they dont believe those measures are truly effective. Masks and social distancing for thee but not for me!

We must newly appreciate how Jesuss denunciation of the Pharisees was not restricted to them, but applicable to all times and places where those in authority live by a different set of rules than the rest of us.

Richard Reeb taught political science, philosophy and journalism at Barstow College from 1970 to 2003. He is the author of Taking Journalism Seriously: Objectivity as a Partisan Cause (University Press of America, 1999). He can be contacted at rhreeb@verizon.net.

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Thinking It Through: What's wrong with the shutdown? - VVdailypress.com

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Eager to spark the socialist revolution, left-wing activistsseized Ramsett Park and the surrounding area and declared anindependent autonomous community dedicated to social and economicjustice. The activists threw up barricades and excluded both thepolice and the "bourgeoisie" owners of businessessurrounding the park. Fearing a primary challenge, Mayor Gundersonordered the police to withdraw from the area except forlife-or-death situations. As days turned into weeks, the areareverted to a Hobbesian state, with violence increasing and refugeaccumulating in the street. Mayor Gunderson belatedly ordered thearea cleared. When the business owners returned, they found theirbuildings vandalized and their property stolen or destroyed. Theylook to hold someone responsible. But the activists havedisappeared, and, in any event, hippies are notoriously judgmentproof. Can Mayor Gunderson and the City be held liable for notenforcing the law?

While that hypothetical may have appeared bizarre and improbablelast year, astrikinglysimilar situationoccurred in Seattle in June, asactivists seized control of a sixteen-block area that came to beknown as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest ("CHOP")Zone. Seattle did not order the police to clear the area for threeweeks, during which there was extensive violence and propertydamage. At the end of June, local businesses and property owners inthe CHOP area sued Seattle to recover for the damages they sufferedand the temporary loss of their businesses and land.

Last month, a federal judge in Washingtonheldthat the lawsuit could proceed and that the propertyowners had pled enough facts to show potential violations of theFourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause (which prohibits thegovernment from depriving individuals of "property without dueprocess of law") and Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause(which states that "private property [may not] be taken forpublic use without just compensation"). This post will examinehow those claims would fare in Texas.

Successfully suing a city in Texas for violating the Due ProcessClause would be difficult. In 1989, the Supreme Courtheldthat the Clause generally does not require thegovernment to "protect the life, liberty, and propertyinterests of its citizens from invasion by private actors. In otherwords, the Clause's "purpose was to protect people fromthe State, not to ensure that the State protected them from eachother."

However, one exception to that general rule is the so-called"state-created danger" doctrine, under which thegovernment can be held liable for violating the Due Process Clauseif it created or increased the danger to the injured individual.The Supreme Court hasneverrecognizedthis doctrine. The Fifth Circuit hasnoteither and, in fact, has created such a stringent testthat it has never found a set of facts that could satisfy it. Underthattest, the plaintiff must show:

Even assuming that the Fifth Circuit would recognize thestate-created danger doctrine, the business owners in ourhypothetical probably could not satisfy it. First, the City did nottake an affirmative step to create the danger or make the businessowners more vulnerable to it. It was an omission, rather than anact of commission. And, if the government had no hand in bringingabout the peril but "simply stood by and did nothing whensuspicious circumstances dictated a more active role, it cannot beheld liable." Second, it is doubtful that the business ownersare "known victims" under the Fifth Circuit's test.That court hasheldthat the state-created danger doctrine does notextend to any foreseeable victim, because "increasing the riskof harm to unidentified and unidentifiable members of the public...is not sufficiently willful and targetedtoward specific harm to remove the case into the domain ofconstitutional law."

In contrasts, the Ninth Circuit hasrecognizedthe state-created danger doctrine, and thecourt in the Seattle "CHOP" case held that the Plaintiffshad pled enough facts to satisfy it. It concluded thatSeattle's alleged "actionsencouraging CHOPparticipants to wall of the area and agreeing to a 'noresponse' zone within and near CHOP'sbordersforeseeably placed Plaintiffs in a worse positionthan they would have been in absent any City interventionwhatsoever."

The distinction between commissions and omissions isalsocriticalto the business owners' likelihood ofprevailing under the Takings Clause. When the government takesprivate property, it must pay "just compensation," thatis, the property's fair market value. The Supreme Courthasheldstatedthat a temporary takings claim can be maintained when thegovernment's action occurring outside the property gives riseto "a direct and immediate interference with the enjoyment anduse of the land." And, once the government has worked a takingof the property, "no subsequent action by the government canrelieve it of the duty to provide compensation for the periodduring which the taking is effective."

That being said, the Takings Clause requires compensation onlyif the property is taken by the government, not a third party. Forexample, the government is not liable under the Takings Clause if athief steals a car, even if the government could have done a betterjob of deterring the theft by erecting more street lights orincreasing the amount of police patrols.

But providing authority or assistance to that third partychanges the result. State governments have granted the power ofeminent domain on private companies, such as railroads andtelecommunication providers. Local governments have also seizedproperty themselves andtransferreditto private companies to promote "economic development."Whether the latter transfers are for "a public use"isdebatable(anddoubtful). But they are unquestionably takings for which thegovernment is required to provide "justcompensation."

The hypothetical above and the Seattle "CHOP" casefall between the government seizing property itself andtransferring it to a third party and the government merely failingto prevent theft of and trespass on private property. In thehypothetical, a claim under the Takings Clause would likely notsucceed because the City provided no assistance to theactivists.

On the other hand, the court in the Seattle "CHOP"case held that the Taking Claim was viable because the propertyowners had pled facts indicating that Seattle's"endorsement of, and the provision of material support to CHOPset in a motion a series of acts by certain CHOP participants, whothe City knew or reasonably should have known would deprivePlaintiffs of their protected property interest."Specifically, the Plaintiffs pointed out that Seattle had provided"medical equipment, washing/sanitation facilities, portabletoilets, nighttime lighting, and other material support." AndSeattle's mayor tweeted her support for the activists andinfamously predicted a "summer of love" in the area. Based on those facts, thecourt held that the City might be liable under the Takings Clause.While the Plaintiffs have not won the merits, the case is one towatch.

The situation in Seattle is undoubtedly an extreme situation,but it is an important reminder that the usual recourse for thegovernment's failure to enforce its laws is political, ratherthan legal. The Seattle "CHOP" case could begroundbreaking if the Plaintiffs ultimately prevail. Regardless ofits outcome, property owners should not rely solely on thegovernment to protect their property but rather make sure that theyare adequately insured against property damage and theft.

The content of this article is intended to provide a generalguide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be soughtabout your specific circumstances.

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On September 22, a group of nine students at the University of Miami received a mysterious email from an administrator. Dr. Ryan Holmes is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting to discuss [the] incident that happened on September 4, 2020, at the Whitten University Center, read the email, obtained by Teen Vogue. There was a Zoom meeting link, but no further explanation. The incident the email referred to, which all nine email recipients had attended, was a die-in to protest conditions for cafeteria workers on campus. In the Zoom meeting, the students say, Holmes gave a long speech about how they should have properly registered their protest. When they asked repeatedly how they had been identified, they report that the dean didnt have as much to say.

Everyone was kind of wondering how we were identified as being at the protest, Mars Fernandez, a graduate student at the University of Miami, tells Teen Vogue. At one point someone just outright asked, Was it some sort of supersecret surveillance technology? The dean just kind of laughed, and then said something about how its no different than if the school were to use facial recognition software to find a students laptop that goes missing from the library.

In late October, another group of University of Miami students got in trouble for removing banners from campus that had been placed by the universitys College Republicans club. University of Miami president Julio Frank emailed the student body with a message, obtained by Teen Vogue, that a pro-Trump banner approved to be displayed on campus had been vandalized and that those found responsible will be held accountable. Soon after, several students who removed the Trump signs say they were called in by the police. Although they did not ask how they were identified as the individuals behind the action, the students who spoke with Teen Vogue say many suspect facial recognition technology was involved.

One student who removed a Trump sign tells Teen Vogue they did so to ensure marginalized students felt safe on campus. To me, that sign was a disgusting display of a hateful belief system that has somehow become socially acceptable with the rise of Trump, says the student, who prefers to remain anonymous. I was contacted by the police a couple days after. The student says they felt as if the police were trying to intimidate them and the matter was being treated as a criminal investigation. Since they used the word criminal, a lawyer informed me that it was within my fifth amendment rights to not show up and testify against myself," the student explains. "The lawyer reached out and told the police she was representing me, and I havent heard from them since. Teen Vogue has reached out to the University of Miami Police Department multiple times for comment.

Stay up-to-date with the Teen Vogue politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take!

In a statement emailed to Teen Vogue, the University of Miami denies any use of facial recognition technology on campus. The University does not employ facial recognition technology in its security measures, the statement reads. The University was criticized, wrongly, for allegedly using facial recognition technology to identify students who attended a September protest.

However, the resume of David Rivero, the chief of police with the University of Miami Police Department, touts the universitys usage of a camera system that employs facial recognition. One of the largest security project[s] added during Chief Riveros tenure was the creation of the new university-wide camera system, reads Riveros resume, obtained by Teen Vogue. The system now includes 1,338 cameras, recording 24 hours a day, and featuring video analytics, which is the use of sophisticated algorithms applied to a video stream to detect predefined situations and parameters such as motion detection, facial recognition, object detection, and much more. In an October 4 interview with Distraction, a student magazine at the university, Rivero admitted to using facial recognition to catch a few bad guys on campus. According to the universitys statement, though, Rivero denies the use of facial recognition technology during the September protests on campus.Teen Vogue has reached out for clarity surrounding the matter, but has not received a response.

Read more:
Facial Recognition Technology Is Being Used on More Campuses During COVID-19 - TeenVogue.com