$2.7 Million Verdict Buried on Page 3 -- University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences Student Victims Sue, 10 Day Jury Trial, $2.7 Million Verdict, Record Blows Coverage. (SAR)

After midnight on November 21, 2018, a St. Johns County jury returned a huge jury verdict against University of St. Augustine for six students victimized by negligent misrepresentations about an unaccredited orthopedic assistant graduate program. This case was a story assiduously covered by Jake Martin, now himself a journalism graduate student in New York, where is girlfriend is also a journalism student.

Blowing the years of coverage invested in this case, the St. Augustine Record printed a story a week after the post-midnight verdict.

The Record blew an opportunity to coverage a rare civil jury trial involving big damages against a local sacred cow.

After midnight on Thanksgiving Eve, a St. Johns County jury returned a $2.7 million verdict for six students against a local educational institution for negligent misrepresentation, awarding damages for costs of attending school, lost past and future wages and emotional distress. No Record reporter attended and took notes at the 12:10 AM verdict, or any of the trial proceedings. The trial lasted ten days.

A week later, the Record printed a dull story lacking in details, on a subject its former reporter Jake Martin had written numerous informative well-researched page articles.

Q: What kind of "reporter" and what kind of "newspaper" failed to attend and provide daily coverage of a negligent misrepresentation case against University of St. Augustine, a local sacred cow?
A: Travis Gibson -- most noted for being credulous, depending on Rev. RONALD RAWLS, and incapable of counting the number of protesters at the November 17, 2018 Nights of Lights ligtup -- blew the St. Augustine Record's coverage. ]

GateHouse is cheap on overtime, but what a dramatic series of articles there would have been if the Record had attended and taken notes, as when founder Stanley Paris and other witnesses testified. What a lost opportunity to inform readers about how civil litigation works, or to cover what may be Circuit Court Judge J. Michael Traynor's last major jury trial before his upcoming retirement at age 70.

Coverage would have raised reader consciousness of white collar crime and corruption in education, and improved upon the thorough education about education we Record readers received reading Jake Martin's stories.

Among the witnesses were University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences founder Stanley Paris, who was a management representative sitting at counsel table. Since the school was bought by an international chain, among those serving on the parent firm's advisory boards was former President Bill Clinton.

If some of us had known this trial was ongoing, we would formed a car pool and gone to watch a ten day jury trial in a complex case about students euchred into a program with no job prospects in Florida.

The late conservative U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist called the right to civil jury trials "a bulwark against oppression."

But civil jury trials are in danger, thanks to settlement pressure, rule changes and mandatory cramdown arbitration agreements hidden in contract fine print, even in employment contracts formed as contracts of adhesion when you file a job application. The Record neglected its duty to inform its readers about civil litigation.

Swayed by putrid propaganda from Big Business, tortfeasors, insurance companies and their defense lawyers, many of our St. Johns County residents are utterly uninformed about the civil justice system and how it protects their rights. The Record keeps them thattaway, having never in the 20 years I've lived here bothered much about the Courthouse except in criminal cases (and even then increasingly rarely unless there's a bloody body or other criminal case).

As J.D. Pleasant once told em, if you want a secret kept in St. Augustine, tell the St. Augustine Record.

Paris several times attempted several times to solo yacht around the world -- he came closer to that goal than the Record does fulfilling the Founding Fathers' intentions in writing the First Amendment.

Next time there's a big civil jury trial in St. Johns County Courthouse, will the Record kindly promise to tell us as it happens?

Stsy tuned.

By Travis Gibson tgibson@staugustine.com

Posted Nov 29, 2018 at 2:01 AM

  

The University of St. Augustine could be on the hook to pay more than $2.7 million in damages to six former students who were involved in a now-defunct program that the students said the for-profit school misrepresented in order to get them to enroll.

In each individual case, court documents show, the jury found that the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences LLC made negligent misrepresentations about the Master of Orthopedic Physician Assistant Program, a program with a tuition price tag of more than $70,000.

“It was definitely a David vs. Goliath situation,” said Kevin Jakab, founder and managing attorney at Jakab Law in Jacksonville who represented the students.

Launched in May 2011 on the school’s St. Augustine campus, the program was packaged as a two-year graduate program consisting of instructional and clinical study. Months before the program’s inaugural class graduated, USA informed students and faculty that the program’s name would be changing to Master of Orthopedic Assistant as the “orthopedic physician assistant” profession was not licensable in the state of Florida.

Students questioned whether their investment of nearly two years and more than $100,000 in tuition, fees and living expenses would be worth a degree granting them no more freedom to work in medicine in Florida than what’s allowed with a high school diploma. A civil lawsuit followed in 2013.

The jury found the university did not conceal any material facts concerning the program, according to court documents, but recommended the university reimburse the plaintiffs the cost of the program, compensate them for past lost and future wages along with compensation for mental anguish. Six plaintiffs — Michelle Hemingway, Holly Wheeler, Christina Mollica, Lauren Hofius, Elihu Watts and Dustin Janzen — were part of the civil lawsuit.

The jury reached its verdict on Nov. 21, Jakab said.

“We are disappointed that the situation escalated to trial,” university spokesperson Joe Cockrell wrote in a statement to The Record. “Although the jury granted financial reimbursement to these former students, the jury also decided that the plaintiffs did not prove their allegations of fraud against the University. The program involved in this case has not been offered for several years. We are grateful to have this behind us.”

Hemingway’s was the only case in which the jury found clear and convincing evidence that punitive damages were warranted, but Judge Michael J. Traynor ruled that punitive damages were not warranted and issued a directed verdict, Jakab said.

Jakab said he hopes to get a final judgement in the case from Traynor, who is scheduled to retire in December, or a replacement judge as soon as possible.

A similar case involving two more former St. Augustine University students is pending and could go to trial early next year, Jakab said.