EDA vacancies filled; supervisors forward resolution urging action on EDA criminal prosecutions

The final items on the Warren County Board of Supervisors Tuesday evening agenda were two Economic Development Authority matters. The second of those was appointments to fill the two vacant seats on the EDA Board of Directors. Those vacancies were created by the supervisors’ majority decision to make Ed Daley’s interim county administrator’s appointment more lengthy than originally anticipated when the retired Frederick County-Winchester area municipal manager was tapped from the EDA Board following the forced resignation of long-time Administrator Doug Stanley, and by the amount of out-of-state work, Melissa Gordon has been engaged in recently.

Appointed to fill those seats were Scott Jenkins and Robert Hencken.

Jenkins and his wife Lisa are proprietors of Mountain Home Bed & Breakfast on the county’s south side and are active in tourism promotion endeavors locally. Hencken has been a member of the county’s Broadband Committee. Further information on the appointees will be provided when available from the County.

The pace of criminal justice

Preceding those appointments was the approval of a Resolution expressing a collective discontent at the pace at which the criminal side of the EDA financial scandal case is proceeding. Following John Bell’s 2019 election, in early 2020 his office recused itself collectively from those cases due to personal or professional connections leading to potential conflicts of interest. Criminal indictments dating to Brian Madden’s tenure as Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney were eventually dropped by the Special Prosecutor’s Office in Rockingham County to avoid case dismissals due to the volume of material – over a million pages of documentation – leading to a permanent dismissal of cases on defense motions related to a prosecutorial failure to meet speedy trial standards.

Some citizens are wondering if the sun has set on criminal prosecutions in the EDA financial scandal. Royal Examiner File Photos by Roger Bianchini

As it stands, new old indictments can be re-filed or new ones filed when prosecutors are ready to move toward trial. However, another delay occurred when the Special Prosecutor’s Office turned the case over to federal authorities in the Western District of Virginia. The consequent lag time in a renewal of criminal prosecutions related to the $26-million dollar-plus EDA financial scandal and civil litigation has frustrated some citizens, and now it seems, those citizens’ elected officials.

The “Resolution Seeking Justice For The Citizens Of Warren County” was passed on a unanimous voice vote on a motion by Delores Oates, seconded by Walt Mabe.

Following an introductory paragraph, a six-paragraph series of sentences beginning with “WHEREAS” traces the EDA’s mission of promoting local economic development; former Executive Director Jennifer McDonald’s role in a position “of public trust” in that endeavor; the allegations that “from at least 2016 until 2018, McDonald, along with various others, engaged in a variety of schemes to unlawfully take millions of dollars in money and property from the EDA for her own personal benefit”; the criminal charging and dismissals described above; concluding with the fact that “currently, no criminal charges are pending against McDonald.”

Citizen frustration has been expressed on social media that former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald, here on the job with her board of directors in September 2018, is not currently facing criminal indictment.

The Resolution then concludes: “Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved By The Board As Follows:

1. The Board requests that a criminal prosecution be instituted as soon as possible against McDonald and any other parties who aided or conspired with McDonald to steal EDA funds or property.

2. The Board authorizes and directs the County Administrator to transmit a copy of this resolution to Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia Daniel P. Bubar, Commonwealth’s Attorney John Bell, Congressman Ben Cline, Senator Mark Warner, Senator Tim Kaine, State Senator Mark D. Obenshain, Delegate C Todd Gilbert, Delegate William D Wiley, Delegate Michael J. Webert, and all local media.”

Followed by acknowledgment the Resolution is considered immediately in effect upon its adoption on May 18, 2021.

Intent of Resolution

Royal Examiner contacted Board Chairperson Cheryl Cullers several days after the resolution’s passage to explore the process of mixing politics and law enforcement, as the resolution seems to do in ordering distribution of it to elected officials at the state and federal level with its “as soon as possible” assertion. Cullers said rather than politicization of a law enforcement endeavor, the resolution’s intent was largely informational.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors made it official on May 18, 2021 – it wants action ‘ASAP’ on the criminal side of the EDA financial scandal investigation. That investigation is now in the hands of federal authorities in the Western District of Virginia.

“I think with this the intent was to let people know that we do want to see justice for them in this case with the small amount of encouragement we can give, rather than to tell law enforcement how to do its job,” the Warren County board chair asserted. She pointed to the lengthy delay in re-establishing criminal prosecutions, as noted above the criminal cases have passed through the hands of three different prosecutorial agencies, finally being passed from the state to federal level from late 2019 to early 2020.

Cullers said that while she has not experienced much direct feedback from constituents, she is aware of social media expressions of frustration at the lack of action on the criminal side of the EDA financial scandal litigation since the original indictments were dropped by the Special Prosecutor’s Office in Harrisonburg to assure they could be re-filed when prosecutors were ready to proceed to trials against multiple defendants.

But when might that be after over a year of no visible action at the federal level?

Interim County Administrator Ed Daley left, and County Attorney Jason Ham was tasked with preparation and distribution of the board of supervisors ‘Resolution Seeking Justice for the Citizens of Warren County’ regarding criminal prosecutions related to the EDA financial scandal.

With the May 18th passing of the “Seeking Justice” resolution that is now, not only a matter of citizen but official county concern as well. Tasked by the county supervisors with distribution of the resolution to state and federal elected officials and the media, Interim County Administrator Ed Daley agreed with Cullers’ assessment, adding a subtle political push to the equation.

“I think the intent is to assure that the case is proceeding, and is not put in the inactive case file at the federal level,” Daley told Royal Examiner on Thursday afternoon, as the staff was preparing the resolution’s distribution documentation.

The full text of the resolution is available here.

Those two EDA-related matters begin at the 2-hour-and-13-minute mark of the County meeting video.