List of attorneys representing various parties as far back as 2015 follows below; who is paying for all this legal representation?

The five-year multi-million dollar lawsuit between the former director of aviation programs at Yavapai College, Dan Hamilton, and the College is headed for a jury trial based on the most recent ruling by Federal District Judge Murray Snow.  It has dragged on for five years. There appear to be eleven parties including the plaintiff, nine defendants, and the United States Government. (Note that some named defendants are sued in different capacities, thus the extended list of parties.)

One of the questions about the lawsuit is who is paying for the several defense attorneys involved in the action? And how much has been paid?  And how much is owing?  No one on the College Governing Board has publicly asked for that information and the College has not provided the information to the public.

If the lawsuit is not settled, the jury will be asked to decide whether the College took sufficient steps to inform the VA about how the College was  calculating the 85/15 rule. Hamilton alleges that Yavapai College and its airplane program partner, NorthAire Aviation, violated the Veteran’s Administration funding rule that limits VA beneficiary enrollment to 85% in any program.  (In other words, the program must have at least 15% of its enrollees as civilians.)

In his most recent rulings, Federal District Court Judge Murray Snow wrote that there are “competing issues of material fact as to whether the VA explicitly authorized” Yavapai College to use the calculation it did to arrive at an 85/15 ratio.  The conflict in testimony is between the College’s Certifying Official, Ms. Aldrich, and the VA representative, Ms. Swafford.

The attorneys listed by the United States District Court, D. Arizona, listed the following defendants and their attorneys as of April 1, 2015.

Attorney(s) appearing for the Case (2015 list)

Daniel Hamilton, Plaintiff, represented by Krista Michelle Carman , Warnock MacKinlay & Carman PLLC &Richard James Harris , Richard J Harris & Associates PC.

Yavapai Community College District, Defendant, represented by Elizabeth Ann Gilbert , Jones Skelton & Hochuli PLC.

Yavapai Community College District, Defendant, represented by Georgia A Staton , Jones Skelton & Hochuli PLC.

Yavapai Community College District, Defendant, represented by Steven Douglas Leach , Jones Skelton & Hochuli PLC.

Guidance Academy LLC, Defendant, represented by Dan W Goldfine , Snell & Wilmer LLP, Donald Charles Zavala, Jr. , Boyle Pecharich Cline Whittington, James Michael Gottry , Snell & Wilmer LLP & Joshua Grabel , Snell & Wilmer LLP.

John L Stonecipher, Defendant, represented by Dan W Goldfine , Snell & Wilmer LLP, Donald Charles Zavala, Jr. , Boyle Pecharich Cline Whittington, James Michael Gottry , Snell & Wilmer LLP & Joshua Grabel , Snell & Wilmer LLP.

Amanda Alsobrook, Defendant, represented by Dan W Goldfine , Snell & Wilmer LLP, Donald Charles Zavala, Jr. , Boyle Pecharich Cline Whittington, James Michael Gottry , Snell & Wilmer LLP & Joshua Grabel , Snell & Wilmer LLP.

John Morgan, Defendant, represented by Donald Peder Johnsen , Gallagher & Kennedy PA, Georgia A Staton , Jones Skelton & Hochuli PLC & Steven Douglas Leach , Jones Skelton & Hochuli PLC.

John Morgan, named as: husband on second amended complaint, Defendant, represented by Jodi Renee Bohr , Gallagher & Kennedy PA.

April Morgan, Defendant, represented by Donald Peder Johnsen , Gallagher & Kennedy PA, Georgia A Staton , Jones Skelton & Hochuli PLC, Steven Douglas Leach , Jones Skelton & Hochuli PLC & Jodi Renee Bohr , Gallagher & Kennedy PA.

United States of America, Movant, represented by Lon R Leavitt , US Attorneys Office & Todd Frederick Lang , US Attorneys Office.

College witness says she discussed method of calculating 85/15 Rule with VA; VA witness does not recall such conversation

The multimillion dollar lawsuit between the former director of aviation programs at Yavapai College, Dan Hamilton, and the College is headed for a jury trial.  If it is not settled, the jury will be asked to decide whether the College took sufficient steps to inform the VA about how they were calculating the 85/15 rule. Hamilton alleges that Yavapai College and its airplane program partner, NorthAire Aviation, violated the Veteran’s Administration funding rule that limits VA beneficiary enrollment to 85% in any program.  (In other words, the program must have at least 15% of its enrollees as civilians.)

In his most recent rulings, Federal District Court Judge Murray Snow wrote that there are “competing issues of material fact as to whether the VA explicitly authorized” Yavapai College to use the calculation it did to arrive at an 85/15 ratio.  The conflict in testimony is between the College’s Certifying Official, Ms. Aldrich, and the VA representative, Ms. Swafford.

According to the Judge’s memo, Ms. Aldrich testified during her deposition that she personally discussed Yavapai’s method of calculating the 85/15 Rule with VA representative Ms. Swafford. Ms. Aldrich testified that Ms. Swafford told her that it was proper for Yavapai to compute one 85/15 ratio for the entirety of its degree program, and that the 85/15 Rule did not require separate calculations for each concentration within the program.

However, Ms. Swafford testified at her deposition that she does not recall having any such conversation with Ms. Aldrich in December of 2012. Furthermore, Ms. Swafford testified that Yavapai never explicitly asked whether it could comply with the 85/15 Rule if it combined the four concentrations of the AVT program into a single ratio.

A jury will be asked to resolve the conflicting testimony.

You may read all of Judge Snow’s ruling here.620 ORDER on MSJs[5372]

Federal court again refuses to dismiss various claims brought by former employee

Yavapai Community College and other defendants have been fighting the lawsuit in Federal District court in Phoenix brought by former director of aviation programs at Yavapai College, Dan Hamilton, for five years.  United States District Judge G.  Murray Snow issued his latest 31-page detailed order on April 13, 2018, and allowed all fraud claim counts to proceed to trial against all defendants.  Hamilton has alleged several theories of fraud and any one of them exposes the College to potentially tens of millions of damages.  The judge approved all but one of Hamilton’s theories for trial.

Shortly after the April order was issued by Judge Snow, the College moved the court to reconsider one of the theories of Hamilton’s retaliation claims.  Judge Snow denied the motion for reconsideration, meaning Hamilton’s retaliation claims also go forward.

The Complaint was filed by the former director of aviation programs at Yavapai College, Dan Hamilton, and alleges, among other things, that Yavapai College and its airplane program partner, NorthAire Aviation, violated the Veteran’s Administration funding rule that limits VA beneficiary enrollment to 85% in any program.  (In other words, the program must have at least 15% of its enrollees as civilians.) Read More→

President Wills says things are moving very slowly

At the November Governing Board monthly meeting representative Deb McCasland asked for an update on the status of the multi-million dollar lawsuit pending in federal court that was brought by Dan Hamilton.  Wills replied that it was going “very slowly.”  There was nothing to report.

Recall that the last time the District Governing Board considered this issue was almost a year ago when it went into executive session February 14, 2017 to discuss the lawsuit.  Following the closed session, there was no comment on what, if anything, was discussed. The dispute is now headed for trial on the whistleblower’s claims. 

Federal District Court Judge Murray Snow ruled in December, 2016 that a second whistle-blower case against the Yavapai College flight program will proceed.  The case alleges that Yavapai College’s airplane pilot program took millions of dollars from the VA by submitting false claims for veteran education benefits while knowingly violating the VA’s enrollment limitations. 

The Complaint filed by the former director of aviation programs at Yavapai College alleges that Yavapai College and its airplane program partner, NorthAire Aviation, violated the Veteran’s Administration funding rule that limits VA beneficiary enrollment to 85% in any program.  (In other words, the program must have at least 15% of its enrollees as civilians.)

The Complaint alleges schemes wherein NorthAire improperly paid for students whom the program certified were not receiving any institutional aid and that the program improperly counted students who were not in the airplane program including part-time, non-flight training, high school students for whom YC waived tuition.  The 85% enrollment limitation is the VA’s safeguard to guarantee that the programs have real world relevance, demand and market driven pricing. 

In an earlier ruling on December 6, 2016, Judge Murray Snow denied a motion to dismiss filed by Yavapai College’s partner NorthAire.  NorthAire argued that as a mere contractor with the College who did not, itself, submit the claims or certifications to the VA, it could not be held liable for the program’s fraud. 

A video of the Governing Board 45 second discussion on this issue follows below:

Judge says Multi-million dollar lawsuit involving former head of aviation program to go to jury

The defendants in Daniel Hamilton’s $60 million dollar lawsuit against Yavapai College and some of its administrators must go to a jury trial, Federal District Judge G. Murray Snow ruled September 28 (Wednesday).  Recall that Mr. Hamilton is the former Yavapai College Director of Aviation Programs.

Hamilton is a professional aviator, a veteran and a decorated former F-16 fighter pilot who served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force from 1997 to 2007. He reportedly started his job with Yavapai College in Sept. 6, 2011, and was terminated on or about May 31, 2012.

According to Hamilton’s lawyer, “One of the educational programs under the Post 9/11 GI Bill is a helicopter flight training/degree program.” Among the requirements of the program is that no more than 85 percent of the students in the program can be funded by the VA or by the educational institution.  “No new VA benefits are paid when the computation establishes that the 85/15 ratio is not satisfied.” Mr. Hamilton’s lawsuit alleges that Yavapai College and Prescott-based Guidance Aviation fraudulently took tuition money for its aviation programs from the U.S. Veterans Administration’s Post-9/11 GI Bill, but did not comply with the program’s requirements. Along with the false claim allegations, Hamilton is also suing Yavapai College for wrongful termination under the False Claims Act whistleblower protection provisions and under state law.

In his order denying a request by the defendants that the lawsuit be dismissed, Judge Snow wrote that “[t]he Defendants were warned that the 85/15 ratio `applied to each program and each course’ containing veterans.”  He also observed that “Yavapai and Guidance had violated Regulation 4201 in the past.”

Judge Snow rejected the theory that JTED students could be counted in the 15% required by the Veterans Administration. In part he wrote:  “Notes from a meeting between Guidance, NorthAire, and Yavapai representatives in July of 2012 indicate that the Defendants had reason to know that `there is a statute stating we can’t count the JTED students as civilians because they are possibly counted in secondary, per the state.’”

The judge’s decision should drive Yavapai College to begin serious negotiations to settle the lawsuit.  A complete copy of Judge Snow’s order can be found by clicking on the following link. 414-order-on-dispositive-motions1815086