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FINALLY, THE ARRESTS BEGIN! On Thursday, June 21, 2007 my attorney received a phone call from The Inspector General’s office stating the Federal Grand Jury @ the Middle District of Florida in Orlando has indicted the first person I alleged was embezzling funds from my AIDS patients and clients, Ebony Davis. She was arrested and posted bond, pleading, “not guilty.” The status conference is July 12, 2007. And the five (5) day trial begins August 1, 2007. The US Attorney in charge, Cynthia Hawkins has asked the Federal Grand Jury for the five (5) day trial. According to the Inspector General's Office, because of the statute of limitations they were only able to indict on $2,180. However, I am sure that the US Attorney would not have asked the Federal Grand Jury and the judge for a five (5) day trial for $2,180 alone.
Ex-Aids worker charged in theft of $2,182
Originally appeared on News.Joumal Online at
http://www.news-journalonline.comiNewsJournaIOnlinelNewslEastVolusialevIEAST04062207.htm
June 21. 2007
Ex-Aids worker charged in theft of $2,182
By ANNE GEGGIS
Staff Writer
A fired employee of a now-defunct AIDS agency was arrested Thursday on
federal charges that she embezzled government money meant to pay for the
housing of AIDS patients.
Ebony Davis, 29, of Daytona Beach is accused of stealing at least $2,182 while she was an employee for the AIDS Coalition of VolusiaFlagler, according to court papers. She pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released. That agency closed its doors last July when it ran out of funding. The former chairwoman of the coalition's board couldn't be
reached for comment on what role the alleged embezzlement played in the agency's demise.
Davis' arrest is only the beginning of federal charges against former AIDS Coalition workers, according to Michele Egan-Byron, a former case manager at the coalition who went to authorities when she found financial irregularities.
Egan-Byron, now living in Palm Beach County, said she discovered missing money at the agency when she sought federal funds that provide housing and living expenses for AIDS patients. She was told they had already accessed their funds - and there was no more money - even though her dients told her they hadn't used it.
She said Davis sent vouchers to a federal housing program for AIDS patients and arranged for her father to receive those funds as the patients'landiord. ''The landlord gets paid the money directly," Egan-Byron said.
Davis, who didn't return a phone call Thursday, was fired from the AIDS Coalition in late 2002 - but charges were never pressed. Davis later went to work a senior health educator at Stewart-Marchman Center for Chemical Independence, where she worked from February 2004 until last March.
After Davis' departure from the AIDS Coalition, however, money continued to go missing from the same fund, Egan-Byron said. Soon after that, Egan-Byron said she began having trouble at work and she was fired in December 2002.
Following that firing, Egan-Byron's ex-husband was able to get temporary custody of her son after a former AIDS Coalition colleague testified at a hearing that she was "delusional" in reporting the goings-on at the coalition, court papers show.
An official with the U.S. District Attorney for the Middle District of Florida said the investigation is continuing. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Baker agreed in U.S. District Court in Orlando Thursday with a request from Assistant U.S.
Attorney Cynthia Hawkins that Davis be monitored for drugs because of evidence that she is abusing them.
anne.qeqqis@news-irnl.com
