Postmus, Mitzelfelt subpoened re: CCA
After almost two and a half years, the shoes have started dropping:
2 leaders subpoenaed
Postmus, Mitzelfelt called to testify before grand juryA grand jury has subpoenaed county Assessor Bill Postmus and Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt in what is believed to be an investigation into financial disparities at the now-defunct California Charter Academy.
Mitzelfelt confirmed late Friday that he had received a subpoena requesting that he appear before the grand jury as a witness.
“I will go in there and answer any questions that they have,” he said.
Postmus did not respond to requests for comment.
San Bernardino County spokesman David Wert said Friday that he had informed the Board of Supervisors that grand jury subpoenas had been issued in connection with an investigation into the charter academy.
The fact that two of the county’s top Republican officials have been subpoenaed does not necessarily mean they are targets of the investigation. It could be that the grand jury just wants their testimony in a broader review of the financial collapse of the charter school group in 2004.
It could also be that investigators are looking at one or both for possibly playing a more nefarious role.
Here’s the part most of interest to most Hesperians, I suspect:
Also named in the audit is Tad Honeycutt, a Hesperia city councilman who worked closely with Cox.
Honeycutt was the business-development director for the school’s private management firm. That gave him the ability to steer six-figure contracts to outside businesses and receive pay for work that auditors found questionable.
For example, Honeycutt started a company, Maniaque Management Group, which employed him as the chief executive officer and Cox as director. In one instance, the company received four checks for $6,750 each, totalling $27,000, from CCA.
“The audit team could find no evidence of services provided by Mr. Honeycutt or Maniaque for these payments that would justify the use of CCA funds,” the audit report stated.
The audit also states that Honeycutt used his company credit card for “often quite significant” purchases, which “did not appear related to educational purposes.” Cox totaled more than $712,000 over 2 years, while Honeycutt charged nearly $300,000 over two years, which included such purchases as $18,000 for two jet skis.
Honeycutt said Friday that he expected to receive a subpoena but had not yet. He denied all allegations of wrongdoing, explaining the purchases highlighted in the audit as normal for a private business.
“It’s baffling to me,” Honeycutt said. “The audit that the state did was completely baseless. It’s a glorified list of allegations based on nothing.”
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