Bob Mercer posts an exceptionally interesting letter from Governor Dennis Daugaard to the Legislature’s Government Operations and Audit Committee. In the letter, dated October 1, 2015, the Governor announces almost post-scriptively that Stacy Phelps, former director of South Dakota’s GEAR UP program, has resigned from the state Board of Education:
Finally, because of many questions surrounding the administration of this program, Stacy Phelps has resigned from the State Board of Education. I appreciate the work Mr. Phelps has done with Native American students. However, although the State Board of Education has no role in the awarding or oversight of SD DOE contracts or grants, Mr. Phelps’ continued position on that board would be a distraction from the important work the board performs, given his involvement with GEAR UP [Governor Dennis Daugaard, letter to GOAC, 2015.10.01].
Secretary of Education Melody Schopp effectively fired Phelps and the rest of his GEAR UP team on September 16, when she canceled Mid-Central Educational Cooperative’s DOE contract to handle the millions of federal GEAR UP dollars; she formalized that firing with an e-mail Phelps read to his staff last week Tuesday. Fired twice in two weeks—ouch!
Governor Daugaard distracts us from his attempt to use distraction as a euphemism by emphasizing the wrongdoing he says didn’t happen, specifically, that a member of the board overseeing the Department of Education profited mightily from a contract granted by the Board of Education. Phelps’s last salary for Mid-Central Educational Cooperative, the funnel for the federal GEAR UP, College Access, and Teacher Quality grants that supported Phelps’s American Indian Institute for Innovation, was $72,754.50. Heavens no, we wouldn’t want folks to be distracted by the discussion of whether a member of the Board of Education making good money from a coop awarded choice contracts by the Department of Education constitutes self-dealing as defined under the new Benda-Bollen amendments to our conflict-of-interest statutes.
MCEC minutes from October 2013 through November 2014 show MCEC paying Phelps over $21,000 for GEAR UP supplies and summer camp meals. From a business manager perspective, I look at those payments and have to ask, “Why are we writing checks for food and supplies to Stacy Phelps and not to Safeway and Office Depot?”
Governor Daugaard may actually be interested in finding an answer to that question and more about the audit-flagged finances left behind by MCEC business manager Scott Westerhuis, whom the state alleges killed his family, lit his house on fire, and killed himself the night after the state yanked MCEC’s GEAR UP contract:
The Westerhuis fire happened just a few hours after Secretary Schopp provided [MCEC] Executive Director [Dan] Guericke notice of non-renewal. The DCI continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Westerhuis family’s deaths. As DCI searches for a motive, investigators are looking into Scott Westerhuis’ personal finances and his management of MCEC. The SD DOE is providing investigators with all the relevant documents and is assisting to help fully answer the questions raised by Scott Westerhuis’ actions.
At my request, the Auditor General has agreed that [Department of Legislative Audit] will send its FY15 GEAR UP audit findings to GOAC members immediately upon finalization of its findings, expected later this month. I have also asked Attorney General Jackley to look beyond Scott Westerhuis for any evidence of wrongdoing in the administration of GEAR UP. If there has been wrongdoing, I want to find it [Gov. Daugaard, 2015.10.01].
The Benda/Bollen/GOED/EB-5 scandal makes me think that whatever went wrong with GEAR UP and MCEC, the state might be eager to hang all blame on the dead guy. Westerhuis would be even easier to scapegoat, given that he committed the horrific crime of killing his wife and four children. But announcement of Phelps’ resignation (that’s another euphemism, right?), of the expedited release of the latest GEAR UP audit (perhaps faster than the Benda autopsy), and the direction to A.G. Jackley to cast wider net signal that Governor Daugaard is ready to clean house if necessary.
p.s.: While we wait for the Auditor General’s audit results on GEAR UP in FY15, take a look at the audit results GOAC reviewed in August concerning MCEC’s management of GEAR UP money in FY13 and FY14.
Can the state audit the seven Foundations that were set up by Westerhuis/Phelps, or is that out of their jurisdiction since they did not directly receive funding from the state of SD?
According to Daugaard’s letter,Phelps was forced to resign or else Phelps hisownswlf would have claimed to be a distraction,instead of Daugaard bringing it up.
Why do we write checks to Stacy Phelps rather than Safeway and Office Depot?
I’ve been a fiscal officer at a non-profit.
I assume the folks who were being reimbursed did not work at the Platte Palace. The organization did not have charge accounts at all the places necessary, so Stacy used his credit card at businesses near him, and the organization reimbursed him. I assume the original invoices are on file with the business records.
At least that’s the way I would do it. And it would pass muster in an audit.
Why hasn’t Jackley call for an audit yet.
A FORENSIC audit. A forensic audit of the worst kind. There should be auditors crawling over the Education Department and this MCEH thing and every little school that was given money. Did it funnel into other government entities like tribes and then is it a federal crime? Not just a regular audit, we need a forensic one of the worst kind.
“IF THERE HAS BEEN WRONGDOING”??
u mean EB5 or Platte multiple homicide/suicide arson of all the records?
So westerhuis and phelps are as far as daugaard will likely go? an infamous GOAC of EB5 repute will tackle this baby, huh? lackluster oversight by daugaard and rounds protecting SDGOP is more likely, “given past experience with this (SDGOP) subrecipient.
close parenthesis”
grudz-can’t wait to stick it to the Indians, eh? i sure hope not
What if what happened wasn’t a murder-suicide? What if it was a murder? Obviously, Scott was in over his head, and there was wrongdoing. I can’t help but wonder if this goes deep, and high, and someone took Scott out because he knew too much, and his family was collateral damage.
What if, what if… let’s see some evidence. Let’s see the means, motive, and opportunity.
If it wasn’t a third party murder the only other thing that makes sense is that both Nichole and Scott were colluding and he didn’t want to put the kids through the trial.
Free advice for Stacy Phelps: Accept no invitations to meet near a Charles Mix County shelterbelt.
Apparently Mr. Phelps does not possess the protected class distinction we see still at play with the cast of the Rounds Racketeering Scam and the fleecing of the EB-5 program.
What if ??? Is there any indisputable proof that it was a suicide? It was unusual that MJ came to his conclusion in such a short period of time. Usually it takes a month for the AG to issue a report. Some of us wonder if Scott were such a good hunter that he could shoot two athletes and a grown woman without someone escaping? Could Scott have been such a good shot that it would have been done in the dark or did Scott turn on the lights? Could the entire family have been incapacitated by some chemical agent and then the entire family murdered? Burning the house destroyed virtually all evidence.
Millions of dollars in question and people killed with shotguns! Sounds too much like EB-5 and Benda. And it happened again in Charles Mix County?
In any event the public will never know the facts. Some persons might well wish that all blame go to a dead man. Dead people do not talk.
A great novel is waiting to be written on this, and we are never ever going to know for sure.
I prefer not to think that even the corrupt GOP would stoop to killing innocent children to stage a convincing cover up of their corruption. South Dakota government has long been incompetent and corrupt, but it used to be petty amounts taken by buffoons. With EB-5, and this one, and the next one (nuclear waste), we are talking much larger dollar figures involved and bigger stakes for the big fish. Murder of innocents is still a reach, but not out of the question.
It would be a nice gesture if the candidates and political parties who benefitted from donations from all the people involved in this tragedy would refund all the money to the Indian students who were supposed to benefit.
Bob, thanks for that fiscal officer’s read. Will those reimbursements also pass muster in an IRS audit? Phelps would be able to say to the IRS, “These were reimbursements for expenses on behalf of my employer, not personal taxable income?”
96: the Phelps resignation is perhaps an important divergence from the EB-5 scandal. In EB-5, Benda was the fall guy. They worked hard to protect everybody else, including Bollen. In GEAR UP, the state may pin as much blame as possible on the dead guy, but they have already painted some live guys—i.e., Phelps and the GEAR UP employees whom Schopp wholesale chopped.
We could make the argument that cutting the GEAR UP contract is akin to cutting the SDRC Inc. contract in 2013, but now the state has taken the additional step of seeing that Phelps leaves the Board of Education. The Governor is still covering for Phelps, saying the Board of Education didn’t have a role in awarding or overseeing the GEAR UP contract. We’ll have to see how the state’s language evolves as the investigation proceeds.
Reimbursement of legitimate expenses with proper documentation is a practice common to many businesses and non-profits. In this case the proper documentation, if it existed, probably burned up in the Platte house fire, or at least that will be the argument.
Jackley reported a shotgun and shells were found at the scene. A shotgun shell is one that has not been fired. A shell casing would indicate a higher standard of proof that it had been fired. Shells in fires don’t necessarily blow up or fire like they would from a gun. Jackley is sloppy with his verbiage or has unconsciously spilled some truth.
Benda’s suicide always seemed far-fetched to me…equally far-fetched is a regular guy, albeit caught up in some nefarious scheme, actually killing his wife and his beautiful children…
The coroner’s report states that the only person with smoke in his lungs was Scott. As awful as it is, the most likely scenario is as Jackley says: he killed them, set the house on fire, and then shot himself.
The Benda suicide, on the other hand, remains far-fetched to me, too.
What if the coroner is in on it?
Deputy coroner in Benda’s case,Grudz.
well sure, if he/she is republican. dark humor
Sally, you’ve seen the coroner’s report? Is that document available? Or is that detail about smoke in the lungs reported somewhere in the press?
Hey, Bob Klein, I was thinking about the accountability of reimbursements to individuals. Do those reimbursements pass muster when we are spending Uncle Sam’s money? Would a federal inspector general look at thousands of dollars of GEAR UP money paid directly to an individual and say, “O.K.”? Is it possible that the feds would say, “Instead of farming this grant out to subsidiary corporate entities, you need to keep spending in house and make sure all charges go on your organizational charge accounts and credit cards and are made solely by authorized members of your organization”?
South Dakotans are the naïve elderly grandma and grandpa getting their hard-earned tax dollars embezzled by their Golden Boys – the GOP party. Wake up SD, you deserve better. Adult children embezzle from their elderly parents all the time, so what makes you think this couldn’t
happen in your state government?
Top-echelon state officials have been quoted in news reports stating that the tragic murder-suicide incident occurred within hours after the “SD Secretary of the DOE” on Sept 16, 2015 first notifying Mid Central of her decision to terminate the GEAR UP Program partnership agreement with Mid Central. These repeated statements aim an “inferred allegation”: Within hours of having first learned that Mid Central would no longer be administering the South Dakota GEAR UP Program, Scott Westerhuis “Flipped Out”; killed his wife and their four children with a shotgun; set their home on fire; and then shot himself with a shotgun.
The following Mid Central board meeting minutes rebut this “inferred allegation” – “within hours of first learning of GEAR UP partnership agreement being non-renewed – mental state of insanity set in … simply lost control of his rational mind … murder-suicide only available alternative to a man with an analytical mind”.
US Department of Education GEAR UP grant required a minimum of $50,000 to be paid by the SD Dept of Education (SD DOE) to Mid Central Education Cooperative (MCEC) each month:
• As shown in the July 10, 2014 MCEC board meeting minutes, June 2014 GEAR UP grant cash receipts total was $ 867,272.72. As shown in the Aug 6, 2014 MCEC board meeting minutes, July 2014 GEAR UP grant cash receipts total was $ 50,000. As shown in the Sept 4, 2014 MCEC board meeting minutes, August 2014 GEAR UP cash receipts total was $ 306,272.39.
• As shown in the July 9, 2015 MCEC board meeting minutes, June 2015 GEAR UP grant cash receipts total was $ 369,759.86. As shown in the Aug 13, 2015 MCEC board meeting minutes, July 2015 GEAR UP grant cash receipts total was $ 582,210.39. As shown in the Sept 10, 2015 MCEC board meeting minutes, August 2015 GEAR UP grant cash receipts was $0.00.
With MCEC having met on Aug 25, 2015 with SD legislators serving on the Government Operations and Audit Committee and SD DOE administrators to discuss Legislative Audit findings concerning FY 2014 GEAR UP Program combined with MCEC having received $0.00 in GEAR UP grant cash receipts from SD DOE in August 2015, Scott Westerhuis had significantly more advance notice that the GEAR UP Program partnership agreement with SD DOE would not be renewed by SD DOE than the reported Sept 16, 2015 initial notification.
In August 2015, why did SD DOE fail to pay MCEC the GEAR UP Program’s $50,000 minimum monthly amount? Given MCEC receiving $0.00 in GEAR UP cash receipts in August 2015, did top-echelon state official make an “under the radar decision” in late July 2015 or August 2015 to immediately terminate the partnership agreement with MCEC with regards to administering the GEAR UP Program for SD DOE?
Final consideration to ponder, as shown in the Sept 10, 2015 Mid Central Education Cooperative (MCEC) board meeting minutes, Business Manager Scott Westerhuis explained, “The Federal auditors have reviewed the findings from the Legislative Audit of Gear Up, and the results are favorable.” Repeated internet search attempts to located a FY 2014 South Dakota GEAR UP Program federal grant compliance audit report tagged “US Gov’t Dept/Agency” has found no such report. Scott Westerhuis was either lying to MCEC board members or he had contact with federal auditors – perhaps with US Dept of Education? Keep digging; common sense says there should have been some type of US Gov’t Dept/Agency corresponding federal grant compliance report prepared for the FY 2014 South Dakota GEAR UP federal grant.
Badger, Out!
Good details, Craig G. You’re saying that anyone trying to imagine a timeline for the killer’s decision should look far longer than just those few hours between the Wed Sep 16 announcement and the early Thu Sep 17 event, right? You’re saying it makes even more sense to think the shootings and fire were pre-meditated?
Has anyone checked to see what is or has become of all of the Gear Up equipment? They had a fleet of vans – last I heard, they were being moved to the reservation – what about all of the other equipment they have purchased? Is Stacy moving all of this to the reservation in hopes that the feds can’t confiscate it from him? Is anyone looking into this, or is the state still just trying to bury their heads in the sand?
CAH: You’re saying it makes even more sense to think the shootings and fire were pre-meditated?
Badger: Yep, by someone(s) other than Scott Westerhuis!
GEAR UP grant awards from US Dept of Education 7-year term with a maximum $5 million per year award — another SD GEAR UP multi-year award in in 2017-18 — $35 million on the table. Smell any power, control and influence issues?
We are not natives to the Platte area — moved to our MO River cabin in summer of 2013. Never met Scott, Nicole or any of their children. Do not know any of their extended family members, non-profit organization associates, Mid Central Education Cooperative (MCEC) co-workers or friends.
Only firsthand knowledge of the family from driving past their home – pride of ownership and parental focus on needs of their children could be seen from the seat of vehicle. Over past year, observed construction of extended breezeway attached from house to gymnasium-outbuilding; two regulation size football goal posts placed in front yards; recreational motorized “toys” being operated by youth at residence. All indicators of parents who placed the needs of their children first; perhaps in an excessive dosage of facilities and toys.
All local and statewide reported accounts concerning Scott Westerhuis’ mentoring youth activities at church and school, tight-knit family that supported each other, honorable character traits referenced, 15-years as MCEC business manager, active in local community events — all contradict top-echelon state official’s “implied – inferred” allegations that Scott was a self-centered, selfish, spontaneously irrational, desperate killer who in a “moment of insanity” killed his wife and children with a shotgun, torched their home and turned the shotgun on himself. People skills simply say does not mesh nor add up.
Why such haste to tattoo “murder-suicide” to a dead man’s carcass? AG Jackley announcement made within 4-days of the embers cooling? AG reported dog found possible accelerant; shot gun and shotgun shells found in the home. Reported that dogs used to locate human remains. 7,000+ square foot home burned to the ground – nothing left. How much accelerant would be required to due so to a 7,000+ square foot modern home? How long would it take for one man to dispense the required accelerant? Scott and Nicole Westerhuis home-based, non-profit organizations’ audit trail records turned to ashes? Why no public disclosure of other potential motives tied to other possible suspects? Does AG Jackley just saying so make it so?
Scott and Nicole were a husband-wife team — business manager and assistant business manager at MCEC for many years (as reported – Scott 15-years). The husband-wife team oversaw the inflow of revenues and outflow of expenditures to “players and entities” at MCEC. Common sense says this husband-wife team also oversaw all aspects of MCEC board agenda and meeting minutes preparation — had access and were privy to all financial details surrounding all of MCEC operations which were a conduit through which millions of federal grant funds flowed to “players and entities”.
After June 30, 2014 Shoenfish & Company conducted a comprehensive audit of all aspects of MCEC operations for FY 2014; internet posted audit report dated Nov 20, 2014 does not contain auditor working papers details.
Dec 2014 MCEC board minutes state, “Mr. Guericke and Mr. Westerhuis updated the Board on a payment to the State that would have to be made. During the State’s Legislative Audit of the SDGEARUP grant it was determined that the indirect rate used by MCEC had a restriction to just salaries. The amount had been overpaid by the State using salaries and other expenses. The difference amounted to approximately $214,000 over a five year period. Mr. Westerhuis indicated that reserves would be used to pay the amount.”
March 6, 2015 South Dakota Auditor General Martin Guindon sent a letter addressed to Scott Westerhuis at MCEC mailing address; a courtesy copy was mailed to Schoenfish & Company. In the letter Auditor General Guindon stated, “We have reviewed and accepted your audit report on Mid Central Educational Cooperative. Our review was limited to the report and did not include a review of the working papers. Please present a copy of this letter to the governing board to indicate our acceptance of the audit report …”
March 25, 2015 Jason C. Dilges (Commissioner Bureau of Finance and Management) and Martin L. Guindon (Auditor General, Department of Legislative Audit) stated on an opening preface page in a “FY 2014 Single Audit Report” (294 page document), “To the Citizens of the State of South Dakota; The Honorable Dennis Daugaard, Governor; and Members of the South Dakota Legislature: We submit to you herein, the Single Audit Report of the State of South Dakota for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014. This report includes the financial statements for the state of South Dakota as of June 30, 2014 and for the year then ended. The report also presents the results of audit of the State’s compliance with state and federal laws and regulations …”
July 27, 2015 the state Government Operations and Audit Committee chairman, Representative Dan Dryden … sent a letter to Dr. Melody Schopp, Secretary Department of Education … courtesy copies of the letter were sent to Jason Dilges, Bureau of Finance and Management and Nathan Sanderson, Governor’s Office … GOAC scheduled a meeting for August 25, 2015, in room 412, in the State Capitol Building, to review various issues involving state government. The Committee requested Secretary Schopp be present for the August 25, 2015 to discuss corrective action plans for audit findings included in the Single Audit Report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014 … {Note: Common sense says MCEC received similar notice to appear since MCEC Director Dan Guericke and Scott Westerhuis attended this Aug 25, 2015 meeting.
Aug 25, 2015 minutes for the Government Operations and Audit Committee state Representative Dan Dryden, Chair; Senator Larry Tidemann, Vice Chair … third meeting of the 2015 Interim Government Operations and Audit Committee … called to order by Chair Dryden at 9:00 am August 25, 2015 in LRC Room 412 State Capitol Building, Pierre, South Dakota … A quorum was determined with the following members answering the roll call: Representatives Dryden, Hunt, and Hunhoff; Senators Novstrup, Heineman, Tidemann, and Sutton; Representatives Cronin and Bartling and Senator Peters joined by conference call. Staff members present were Mr. Martin Guindon, Auditor General; Mr. Bob Christianson and Mr. Tim Flannery, State Government Audit Managers for the Department of Legislative Audit (DLA) … Item 1 – Department of Education to discuss their corrective action plans for audit findings included in the Single Audit Report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014 … Education findings Doc. 10 (Pages 270 thru 275 of “Single Audit Report”) — DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION CURRENT AUDIT FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS — Federal Compliance Audit Findings – Finding No. 2014-002: Controls were not effective to ensure sub-recipient compliance with allowable cost and matching requirements. CFDA Title: Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) … Federal Award Year: 2013, 2014; Federal Agency: Department of Education; Type of Finding: Material Weakness … The DOE performs desk reviews of monthly billings; however, monitoring controls were ineffective to ensure compliance with the allowable costs/cost principles and matching requirements. In addition to our review of the DOE’s sub-recipient monitoring procedures, we reviewed certain records of the MEC. Based upon our review of those records, we developed audit findings 2014-003 and 2014-004. As a result, compliance with the allowable costs/cost principles and matching compliance requirements was not met) …
Tamara Darnall, Director of the Division of Finance and Management, Department of Education (DOE) and Dan Guericke, Director of Mid Central Educational Cooperative (MEC) were present to address the Committee regarding the findings for the DOE from the 2014 Single Audit. Director Darnall stated that for the most part, all findings have been resolved … Director Darnall explained that MEC has worked with the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) to resolve the indirect cost finding and all questioned costs have been recovered by the USDOE … Director Darnall stated that the employees that failed to provide effort logs have since provided signed affidavits as to the time worked on the South Dakota Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP) … Director Darnall provided the Committee with information regarding the finding that the MEC did not comply with the federal matching requirements. She stated that the partnership agreement between the DOE and MEC should not have been written to indicate a specific dollar amount for the matching requirement. She added that the agreement has been amended to state that MEC will provide a match contribution of one to one, based on total expenses. She added that, in regard to the duplicate matching amounts taken for both the College Access grant and the GEAR Up grant, the College Access match has been removed and monthly reviews have been implemented to prevent this from occurring again. Director Darnall stated that the USDOE has not yet concluded on the resolution of the Microsoft matching amount at this time …
Aug 2015 “Zero Dollars and Zero Cents” in GEAR UP funds received by MCEC from SD DOE. “Secretary of the SD DOE” repeatedly acknowledged by top-echelon state officials from Sept 22 2014 to Oct 1 2014 to have given her initial notice of non-renewal of DOE – MCEC GEAR UP partnership agreement on Sept 16 2015 — “implied – inferred” allegationsthat having first learned of the termination of DOE – MCEC GEAR UP partnership agreement Scott Westerhuis “snapped – flipped out – state of insanity set in spontaneously overriding his rational, deductive analytical mind causing the murder-suicide incident to occur???
How about other suspects and motives? Possible scenario — Scott & Nicole Westerhuis promised to publicly share the facts they were holding with US Dept of Education officials concerning “how & to whom” the federal grant funds had flowed of the past 15-year time period in the event that the MCEC partnership agreement for the GEAR UP Program with the SD DOE was terminated? Feel free to connect the rest of the dots …
A federal special investigator is needed in order provided independent investigation into all matters with all potential suspects and motives objectively considered, examined and evaluated without any entangled state official conflicts of interest or coercive influences — all of the cards need to be placed face up on the table for all citizens to smell.
Badger, Out!
Has anyone ever asked the obvious question: Where does the director of MCEC fit it all of this? No one has ever questioned him? He was Scott’s boss. Why in the world has no one ever even mentioned the boss of the place? HUH?
I find it hard to believe that its not a murder-suicide, for the state to come up with that conclusion, they must have had pretty solid evidence, if the state wanted to slide it under the rug, or hide it, they could have done that by claiming it was an accidental fire.
As for motive? IDK, everyone acts different when they know the hatchet is about to come to them, it could have been that he told his family and when they got all made at him he flipped, as someone who has taken psychology and sociology classes, its easy to target it it towards one act, but many times there are other things that build it up. It could have been the constant pressure to get this together, personal issues, and so on and he flipped.
As for the state and auditing practices, IDK about you, or South Dakota, but when you are getting into thousands of dollars, I’d probably try to set up an account with the company, when you are getting into millions of dollars of accounting problems maybe its time we put a little more over site on the company.
This feels a little different then EB-5 where the state constantly was trying to hide things, and did an alright job of it, so I do wonder if we won’t hear more about it.
SDW, GOAC and the press have asked Guericke questions. Guericke may be wisely taking the same course of conflict-of-interest principals Brinda Kuhn, Stacy Phelps, and Keith Moore
I was just saying that I have never seen on KELO or heard any mention of Guericke. If they have asked him questions, are there any answers? I find it hard to believe that the boss didn’t have some sort of idea that something was going on, or at least he should have.
SDwalleyes, your point is well taken. Guericke has been mentioned, but he hasn’t said much of substance. He released a very formulaic statement the day after A.G. Jackley dropped the bomb. Otherwise, he’s keeping himself scarce.
And I would contend that whatever happened, there was likely a failure of administrative oversight that will make a strong case for new management of MCEC.
The MCEC is likely toast. It is like a piece of rye toasted far too long and likely no amount of white sausage gravy can save it.
Joe, the state may have learned something from EB-5. Hiding things raises suspicion and makes a bigger mess later.
Murder-suicide has not been shown to be impossible or even implausible. It is far more plausible than the also-not-impossible proposition that Richard Benda shot himself in the gut with a shotgun. Craig Guymon likes to dump large mounds of text on us, but nothing in those piles says Westerhuis couldn’t or wouldn’t have done it. I don’t like doing the state’s work for them, but you know, that apparent excessive dosage of material things could reinforce the idea that, cut off from his gravy train, Westerhuis could have snapped.
I have rejected the “moment of insanity” scenario, and I don’t think the state has posited it. The FY14 audit, the May 2015 attention, the August GOAC hearing—yeah, that was plenty for a scammer to see the scam was collapsing, that there would be no more treats, that living beyond his means was going to catch up with him. That was plenty of time for a man with the wrong values to conceive of an “escape” plan, to convince himself that murder-suicide was the best route for himself and his family. Moment of insanity? Try months of insanity, depravity, selfish disconnect from moral constraint.
But this is all speculation against speculation.
grudz, when you say “like a piece of rye toasted far too long and likely no amount of white sausage gravy can save it,” you reveal that you have never tasted my spouse’s white sausage gravy. That flavor could make a piece of cardboard taste like Angel-droppings from heaven.
Mr. bat, you intrigue me, but perhaps you are correct that it’s the quality of the gravy and not the quantity that is needed to save this MCEC business.
so 2013,14 had audit problems? material weakness??
smart dig, badger, for schoenfish audit 2014 $214,000 overpayment by state for salaries/expenses fy 2010-14, correct?
findings 14-002: “controls…not effective”; “DOE…monitoring…ineffective” 14-003,004??
Audit Vice Tidemann is our man from EB5: “we don’t need no stinkin’ hearing questions from lawyers of rounds, daugaard, or bollen. love letters will suffice.”
fed DOE darnall: “findings…resolved [ftmp];… employees…[that]failed…logs…provided signed affidavits;…matching…agreement…amended;…not yet concluded…Microsoft matching….
so what else do we not know? the above seems not to be a big splash (except for tidemann during EB5 run-up to 2014 election, of course)
jackley had to move fast, this was no lonely shelter belt but an entire community watching, yet cory your crudeness only hurts EB5 children and family. try it with Platte and wait for the flack you’ll get, needlessly hurting people living with stigma you perpetuate. a big mouthpiece can be dangerous. in a suicide, relief of stress with a plan out of the situation may lead to momentary calm. the means is whatever yah’ got, it is an irrational act so “pretty” or “logical” is irrelevant.
bear-i ain’t tryin no angeldroppins’, no matter how sweet. Blasphemy! of course grudz observations here are hardly appropriate