FAYETTEVILLE — Then-Sen. Jon Woods’ fiancee got a $70,000-a-year salary from a company that received a $400,000 state grant four months earlier. Her replacement’s salary was exactly half that amount, according to court testimony and personnel documents presented in court today.
Woods is on trial for allegedly accepting kickbacks for such grants. The prosecution is expected to rest this week. The trial began April 9.
Christina Mitchell was hired as an on-the-job trainer for Dayspring, a behavioral health provider, testified Tammy Pierce of Fayetteville, Dayspring’s personnel director at the time. Mitchell’s first day at work was Feb. 24, 2014. She left on June 20 of the same year. In his 2013 financial statement, filed Feb. 2, 2014, Woods listed Christina Woods as an academic adviser with the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, with an income of more than $12,500.
In addition to the salary, Mitchell and her successor were paid a $300 a month mileage allowance and cell phone reimbursement. Mitchell’s successor was paid $35,000 a year.
Mitchell and Woods married on June 14, 2014, Woods confirmed today. Randell Shelton, Wood’s co-defendant in the case, was Woods’ best man, according to earlier statements by defense attorneys in the trial.
At the defense’s request, U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks read jury instructions telling the jury to regard Pierce’s testimony only as evidence against Woods and not against Shelton. Shelton played no role in the AmeriWorks grant, the government acknowledges. His defense argued unsuccessfully for a separate trial.
Although hired by Dayspring, Mitchell primarily worked with clients of Decision Point, a sister company to Dayspring that has its headquarters in the same Bentonville building, Pierce testified. Decision Point is a substance abuse treatment center. Mitchell’s duties were to help Decision Point clients get and keep employment.
Overseeing both Dayspring and Decision Point was Milton Russell “Rusty” Cranford, a lobbyist who was also the chief executive officer for their parent company.
“Who had the final decision on who was hired for this position?’ Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Elser asked about Mitchell’s hiring.
“Rusty Cranford,” Pierce replied.
In another development, a juror in the case fell ill this morning and was replaced by one of the jury’s two alternates. Brooks told the jurors the replaced juror was not sure he could sit through proceedings the whole day. Taking a day off at this point would jeopardize plans to finish the trial next week, Brooks said.
Woods is on trial in federal court in Fayetteville charged with taking kickbacks in return for awarding state General Improvement Fund grants to nonprofits. One of those grants was for $400,000 to AmeriWorks of Bentonville, a grant that includes a portion approved by then-state Rep. Micah Neal.
Cranford accepted the AmeriWorks grant Sept. 26, incorporated the nonprofit Sept. 27 and deposited the $400,000 check Sept. 30, grant and state incorporation records show. Cranford is under federal indictment in Missouri for nine unrelated bribery charges.
Dayspring received the 2013 grant on AmeriWorks’ behalf because Cranford’s company didn’t have the nonprofit tax status required for a private company to receive a General Improvement Fund grant, according to grant records and court testimony.
The defense contends lawmakers making deals with each other is neither illegal nor unusual.
The amount of money Woods is accused of receiving as a kickback isn’t specified in the indictment. It claims much of that money was paid in cash, except for one transaction made to Woods by wire transfer for $40,000.
Woods faces 15 counts of fraud, all relating to either wire or mail transfers of money. Oren Paris III, former president of Ecclesia College, and Shelton were named in 14 of the fraud charges. All three were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. Woods is also charged with one count of money laundering in connection with the purchase of a cashier’s check.
Neal pleaded guilty Jan. 4, 2017, for his role in the scheme and was the government’s first witness in the case. Neal said he received $20,000 delivered by Woods for steering $125,000 to AmeriWorks. Grant records show Woods directed $275,000 to the company. Neal’s sentence is pending.
Decision Point staff helped file the grant, and the organization received the money on AmeriWorks’ behalf. Cranford signed the application for the grants in question, according to state records and court documents. The grant checks from the Northwest district for the program were made out to “Decision Point d/b/a AmeriWorks.”
That should never have been the case, Decision Point’s parent company, Preferred Family Healthcare of Springfield, Mo., said last year when asked by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about its involvement.
“I have no idea why there is ever a reference to ‘Decision Point dba AmeriWorks,’” said parent company spokesman Reginald McElhannon.
Despite the grants, AmeriWorks failed to gain additional financial support and never got off the ground, according to an August 2014 letter from Cranford to the Northwest district returning the $400,000, according to Economic Development District records. Cranford returned the money the day after federal investigators spoke to him, prosecutors said in court documents filed earlier in the case.
The kickback allegations also involve $550,000 of the more than $717,500 in state General Improvement Fund grants Ecclesia, a private Christian college, received from 2013 through 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice contends.
Paris pleaded guilty April 4 to one count of conspiracy and will testify for the government. He resigned as Ecclesia’s president and from the college’s board the previous day. His sentence is also pending.
Paris disguised the kickbacks as consulting fees paid to Shelton’s company, Paradigm Strategic Consulting, according to the indictment. Shelton then passed the money along, the government contends.
Defense attorneys have said the money transfers to and from Woods were loans and money to pay back loans.
