Use of 'legal eagles' shows no criminal intent, defense argues in Epic Charter Schools preliminary hearing

Charged in a case described as the “largest abuse of taxpayer funds in the history of this state” are Epic co-founders David Chaney, 44, and Ben Harris, 48, as well as Epic’s longtime former chief financial officer, Josh Brock, 42.

Harris’ defense attorney suggested that the defendants’ reliance on attorneys from the most well-known law firms in the state in contract matters and financial arrangements proves that they had no criminal intent.

And Chaney’s defense attorney contended that much of the taxpayer monies Chaney, Harris and Brock are accused of misappropriating had actually become “private funds” once they were received into the bank account of Chaney and Harris’ education management company, Epic Youth Services.

Chaney, Harris and Brock were arrested and charged in Oklahoma County District Court in June 2022 under the Oklahoma Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act.

The criminal case, being prosecuted by the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, alleges 15 counts, including embezzlement, money laundering, computer crimes and conspiracy to defraud the state.

Joe White, who represents Harris, repeatedly probed on the stand the lead investigator from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Mark Drummond, about whether he was aware of the “legal eagles” involved in drawing up and reviewing the contracts that formed the basis for Harris and Chaney to manage the charter school and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars meant for public school students’ education for a decade.

“How can these two guys have criminal intent if they used law firms to draw up contracts?” asked White. “Al Capone doesn’t go to McAfee and Taft and Crowe and Dunlevy. He goes to them for forgiveness!”

To claims by Chaney’s attorney Gary Wood that Epic’s Student Learning Fund monies had become private once in a business bank account belong to Chaney and Harris, Drummond said the location of the dollars couldn’t change the fact that they were taxpayer dollars intended for a specific purpose under state law — the education of public school students.

Wood presented a contract amendment approved by Epic’s school board with Epic Youth Services that included a paragraph that described the funds as private once paid to EYS.

Assistant Attorney General MacKenzie Hill then asked Special Agent Drummond: “I’m going to pay you to kill someone. Because we have a contract, does that make our agreement legal?”

Drummond responded, “No.”

The second witness of the day was Doug Scott, a Tulsa litigation attorney and childhood friend of Chaney and Harris from their hometown of Newkirk.

He served on Epic’s school governing board from the school’s founding in 2011 through 2021, when Epic’s governing board severed all ties with Chaney and Harris’ Epic Youth Services.

Much of the questioning of Scott concerned Chaney and Harris’ move to expand Epic’s operation to add an online charter school in Orange County, California.

Scott told Assistant Attorney General Colleen Galaviz he donated his time to serving on the Epic school board because he was passionate about school choice in Oklahoma, so he had questions and concerns about the push into California before the board greenlighted a subsidiary to carry out the expansion.

“I wanted to make sure there was no Oklahoma tax dollars meant for our school that would be going to that other school,” Scott said.

After it was noted by Drummond that Oklahoma taxpayer dollars and other resources had, in fact, been used for the benefit of Epic-California, Harris defense attorney White noted that some money was repaid after the matter was raised in an investigative audit report by Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd’s office.

Scott denied that the Epic school board, which comprised only personal friends and associates of Chaney and Harris’ save for three names he gave as exceptions, had acted as a “rubber stamp” for the co-founders.

When asked the number of times the board had elected not to approve proposals by Chaney and Harris in his decade on the board, Scott responded, “Probably a handful of times we either tabled an item or took it off an agenda. There were also a number of times an item was discussed and not put on an agenda because there wasn’t going to be support for it.”

When Galaviz began pursuing follow-up questions about those advance discussions about whether or not sufficient board member “support” existed for possible proposals that could come before the school board, Special Judge Jason Glidwell advised Scott that he might be straying into possible violations of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act, which could be incriminating.

Attorney Jacqui Ford spoke out then, identifying herself as Scott’s attorney and saying that if the line of questioning continued, she would advise him not to answer further questions.

Scott then answered that those discussions were most frequently between himself and the board’s attorney, or himself and Harris or Chaney — and he noted: “I’m aware of the Open Meeting Act. Never did we talk more than two (board members) at a time.”

The preliminary hearing is set to run through Friday. At this juncture, a court must determine whether the prosecution has sufficient evidence to justify ordering a trial.

The public proceeding is akin to a mini-trial, at which prosecutors call witnesses and introduce evidence and defense attorneys may cross-examine witnesses. At the conclusion, the judge determines whether there is probable cause to believe that the felony crimes alleged by prosecutors were committed. If not, the judge may dismiss charges.

Brock’s attorney previously told the Tulsa World a plea deal for him is in the works with prosecutors and that he is expected to testify later this week in the preliminary hearing for Harris and Chaney. Brock has already waived his right to a preliminary hearing, and his formal arraignment is set for April 3.

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Epic Charter School: Tulsa World reporting and investigating since 2019