dbeard@dominionpost.com
MORGANTOWN – The Dunbar School Foundation STOP program – a COVID-19 program created to serve the African-American population in Marion and surrounding counties and funded through federal COVID funds channeled through the former Department of Health and Human Resources – is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The foundation and former DSF STOP CEO Romelia Hodges have been ordered to provide an array of documents to the DOJ by U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Aloi. Hodges and STOP were both served the enforcement order at Hodges’ home address in Fairmont.
The DOJ’s Civil Investigative Demand for information regards a False Claims Act investigation alleging Hodges and DSF STOP “submitted false claims, either directly or indirectly, to the U.S. government.”
The Dominion Post began investigating DSF STOP in early 2023 and produced a series of stories that May and June. The former foundation president alerted The Dominion Post to concerns it had about the program operating under its auspices. At the same time, the DHHR – now the Department of Health – was also investigating.
The allegations, detailed in our series of stories, covered such things as nepotism (Hodges’ husband and two children of DSF STOP’s co-founder were on the payroll), excessive executive salaries and bonuses, luxury vehicle rentals, potentially improper ATM withdrawals and potentially improper spending on travel and food.
The program operated on two state COVID grants, the first for $1.2 million and the second, for $990,000.
The DOJ issued its Civil Investigative Demand in March and a STOP representative was first served on May 20. With no apparent response – The Dominion Post has submitted questions about this to Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Savino – the DOJ then submitted a motion to enforce the order and Aloi acted on it on Oct. 21. The order was served Oct. 22.
The DOJ demand spans four pages and calls on Hodges to submit the information within 20 days of receipt.
Among the items demanded: monthly checking and savings statements and ledgers; credit card documentation; documentation on employee bonuses; rental/lease payments; payroll statements and time sheets; COVID vaccine data; a complete employee list and job descriptions; repairs and alterations made to the former Dunbar School cafeteria, which served as STOP headquarters.
DOJ also demanded the current locations for a list items used by STOP, among them: a vaccine cooler; a lawn mower; cubicle partitions; a portable refrigerator; two computers; a Dyson vacuum cleaner; four freezers; a 20×29 canopy tent and three 10×20 tents.
We reported in late May that the Dunbar School Foundation gave DSF Stop until June 11 to pay past-due rent or vacate its headquarters. It was more than $11,000 in arrears on payments. We then reported on June 2 that STOP had ceased operation, emptying and abandoning the building without notice.
The Dominion Post submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to DHHR (now DH) and the Office of Inspector General in March regarding their investigations. OIG denied the request because the investigation remains open. DH regularly requested extensions on its deadline to reply and told The Dominion Post on Tuesday it expects to supply some material later this week.
Hodges did not respond to requests for comment.
