An Augusta County jury trial has been delayed for the sixth time for two leaders of the company Nexus and their former employee. The three stand accused of financially exploiting a young man who used to live with the executives. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
Tuesday's hearing in the Augusta County Circuit Court concluded in the sixth delay since Michael Donovan and Richard Moore's 2022 arrest on two charges each of obtaining money by false pretense and financially exploiting a vulnerable adult. A former Nexus employee, Timothy Shipe, was charged with one count of each felony.
The trio are accused of stealing more than $400,000 from Zachary Cruz, who lived with Donovan and Moore for about seven years. According to prosecutors, Cruz moved out after Donovan allegedly assaulted him in March, although that misdemeanor charge was later dropped.
Judge Sean Workowski said on Tuesday that after multiple delays, he has "made it clear that I want to get these matters tried." Previous trial dates were canceled over issues with Donovan and Moore's legal representation. The latest disruption comes from a scheduling conflict with Moore's federal tax evasion case, in which he faces up to 10 years in prison. After he pled guilty and failed to show up for one sentencing hearing, Moore's attorney successfully petitioned for him to be given a competency evaluation. Workowski said on Tuesday that the evaluation has been scheduled to begin August 27th at the federal prison complex in Butner, North Carolina. As that evaluation could take up to 30 days, Moore's attorney, Caleb Routhier, argued it would be impossible to go to trial in Augusta County in September.
In response, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Katie Jackson said "it is what it is at this point."
Workowski agreed to cancel September's trial and set a status hearing for October 27th, noting that if the federal courts find Moore incompetent to assist in his own defense, that would impact the county's prosecution of him. The earliest the case can be tried now is the second week of March, at which point the courts will likely have moved to the new circuit courthouse under construction in Verona.
