Prosecution
Prosecutor Beard Trial Transcripts (TT) pg. 184 “You’re going to hear from Ashley Clifton. Ashley Clifton is the accountant that was assigned to the charitable law investigation through the Attorney General’s office that happened in this case. And her role was to collect all the financial records and go through all of those financial records.” Pg. 185 “So they were looking at bank records. And specifically you’re going to hear a lot about a Key Bank account that PHCA had. They had a general fund account, and they had four or five ancillary accounts for different programming, a MEDICAL CLINIC, beautification and safety accounts.”
This is the first of dozens of mentions of the medical clinic account.
Exposing the requirements of Engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity Beard states Pg. 190 “There are many incidents that you’re going to hear of. And corrupt activity can be defined as theft and money laundering. Those are the two that we’re going to focus on for this trial.”
Remember that the Appeals Court threw out the money laundering charges only leaving the theft, legally requiring the Engaging to be thrown out also. In March of 2024 Jason filed to be released (see Latest Appeal Denied). He was supposed to be released in 2022 based on this fact alone. The Appeals Court’s reply was simply too late. Spend four extra years. Here is their decision and judgment. Corrupt? Nope. Unjust? For sure. Remember there was no complaint of theft against Jason. This could be you.
Defense Attorney Smith
The defense kept it short. “He’s a volunteer treasurer for a local nonprofit because someone needed to step up and do it. He raised his hand and said I’ll do it. I will serve on a board that I know that no one wants to be the treasurer. Our treasurer has been interim treasurer for about five years now. It is a job that nobody wants because you might end up here.” “Without his fundraising, specific fundraising by him and his ideas, the PHCA would have been dead. It would have been done.” “The Serdas didn’t like Jason for his position. They did not like him to say we can’t afford to pay an employee. Jason was the easy way out. You have to blame someone.” “I think it’s important just because things go wrong, just because the organization loses money, doesn’t mean somebody is stealing it. It doesn’t mean that someone did something improper or wrong. And I ask you to please keep that stuff in mind because it doesn’t have to always be someone’s fault.” “He didn’t launder money, he didn’t steal anything. He was above board with everyone. There’s no hidden things.”
You will see through the testimony and evidence that this statement was factual. Every bit of testimony is how Jason was authorized and trusted with fundraising (see Stephanie’s Testimony). The ironic thing is that they accused Jason of theft by going beyond the consent of the owners. Yet we will show you that every single “owner” knew and approved of Jason’s actions (Stephanie, Anita, Steve Kramer here and here, Martinez’s).