Jury finds younger Davis guilty in Community Action fraud case

The fraud investigation into Community Action of Minneapolis produced a second conviction Tuesday, when Jordan Davis was found guilty of conspiring with his father, longtime CEO Bill Davis, to steal from the nonprofit.

A federal jury in Minneapolis took less than two hours to find Jordan Davis, 35, guilty of five counts of aiding and abetting mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit theft from an organization that received federal funds.

The younger Davis, now an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, helped run a Ben & Jerry's franchise near the University of Minnesota established by Community Action to provide job training for at-risk teenagers.

Prosecutors alleged that Jordan Davis received paychecks from Community Action long after he ceased managing the franchise and became a full-time police officer.

Father and son were indicted last year after an investigation that began with a Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) audit that revealed the nonprofit misspent at least $800,000 between 2011 and 2013 on unauthorized expenses including a car loan for Bill Davis, luxury travel and golf outings.

"Jordan Davis took more than $140,000 in salary that he did not earn," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly A. Svendsen said in a statement after the verdict. "The agreement this defendant made with his father to steal from [Community Action] destroyed opportunities for underprivileged youth to learn valuable job skills."

Davis and his attorney did not respond to request for comment Tuesday.

Awaiting the judge and jury Tuesday morning, Davis stood somberly at his defense table, briefly stepping aside to console two supporters who were already sobbing. Davis and his attorney, Frederic Bruno, both dropped their heads as Judge Patrick Schiltz read the jury's first guilty verdict. As they exited the courtroom, two supporters shouted at prosecutors, "You put an innocent man in prison."

Davis will remain free until sentencing, which will be scheduled at a later date, and faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the mail fraud counts and up to 10 years for conspiracy.

Bill Davis pleaded guilty this month to 16 counts of theft and fraud for misspending at least $800,000 in public funds while running Community Action. At his plea hearing, Bill Davis said he arranged for the nonprofit to pay his son a "consultant's fee" and that it was his idea to continue his son's payments.

In his closing remarks Monday, Bruno described Jordan Davis as a "worker bee" who was available on-call to Ben & Jerry's staff around the clock. He said Davis was considered an "IT wizard" for his expertise with the store's security system, cash machine and heating and cooling. Bruno also asked jurors not to let prosecutors "tar [Jordan Davis] with the same brush" as his father, whom he called a "bully and probably a bad guy."

But, prosecutors said, responsibility for running the shop fell to a series of four other managers who were paid less than Davis despite working there full time and not calling Davis in for help.

Stephen Montemayor • 612-673-1755

Twitter: @smontemayor