Former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald in Custody at Carswell Texas Women’s Medical Center/Prison Camp

An “Inmate Locator” search of the Bureau Of Prisons (BOP) website around noon Thursday, August 15, indicated for the first time that former Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority Executive Director Jennifer Rae McDonald was in BOP custody. She was listed at the Carswell Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Fort Worth, Texas. As previously reported, McDonald was recently given target dates to report to begin her incarceration between August 11 and 17.

FMC Carswell is described as “an administrative security federal medical center with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp located in Fort Worth, TX.” The Bureau of Prisons website notes that the women’s medical center/prison complex currently houses 1,149 inmates, 1,016 at the Federal Medical Center and 133 in the satellite camp.

In blue text, the first change in the Inmate Locator status of Jennifer Rae McDonald since her May 29 sentencing with a court order “not to report before June 24”. Below is an image and stats on the Federal Medical Center Carswell and its adjacent satellite prison camp in Forth Worth, Texas. – Photos from the BOP website

Following her federal jury convictions and May 29th sentencing by federal Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon to 14 years on 30 criminal counts related to the circa 2014 to 2018 FR-WC EDA “financial scandal,” McDonald’s defense team of Federal Court-appointed attorneys Andrea Harris and Abigail Thibeault had requested their client be sent to a Federal Prison Camp with an in-house medical facility. They have also indicated the intent to file an appeal of the convictions. Attempts to get additional detail on an appeal filing from the McDonald’s defense team have thus far been unsuccessful. The 14-year sentence imposed by Judge Dillon lies at the midpoint between the defense’s request for a six-year sentence and the prosecution’s 22 years of incarceration sought.

It may be recalled that McDonald’s jury trial in the federal courthouse in Harrisonburg, Virginia, was delayed several times due to medical issues with involved parties. The longest delay to the Fall 2023 trial, two weeks, was reportedly due to McDonald’s receipt of a pacemaker to deal with heart rate and blood pressure issues she was experiencing.

There had been talk of McDonald being housed in the women’s federal minimum security facility in Alderson, West Virginia, which would have facilitated more convenience to her family members or friends for visitation. However, it appears that the Carswell, Texas facility may be the closest, if not only, federal women’s prison camp with full in-house medical operations for physical and psychological inmate issues.

The repeated Bureau Of Prisons “Inmate Locator” status of Jennifer McDonald prior to August 15, 2024. Below is a discussed potential federal incarceration location closer to home at Alderson, West Virginia. But no in-house medical facility apparently scrapped that.

Background

McDonald resigned on December 20, 2020, under increased scrutiny from her EDA Board and municipal authorities for the movement of millions of dollars involving real estate and other transactions involving EDA assets. She was first arrested on related charges in the spring of 2021. Her case moved through two state Commonwealth Attorney offices, Warren (recusal) and Rockingham (time and complexity regarding over a million pages of evidence) Counties, before being taken over by the 10th Western District of Virginia federal prosecutor’s office in Harrisonburg.

A Royal Examiner filed a photo of McDonald in custody at the state level after a second arrest on July 23, 2019. She has remained free on own recognizance bonds for the majority of time since initially being charged at the state level regarding the EDA “financial scandal”.

McDonald was cited as a central figure in the unauthorized movement of millions of dollars of EDA assets to her own personal benefit, as much as $6.5 million, it was said at trial, or the benefit of others. Including the $12 million received by Truc “Curt” Tran’s ITFederal for its aborted economic development project on 30 acres at the former Avtex Superfund site in Front Royal, which EDA legal counsel successfully argued at civil trial was acquired under false pretenses, an estimated $23 million was fraudulently moved during the 2014 to 2018 timeframe of the EDA “financial scandal” during McDonald’s FR-WC EDA leadership.