A child born the day Tad Honeycutt and Charles Steven Cox were indicted would be a senior in high school now.
Former Hesperia mayor Honeycutt and charter school founder Cox were indicted on Sept. 4, 2007, charged with misappropriating $5.5 million in charter school funds. Seventeen years later, they haven’t stood trial or accepted a plea deal.
How it all started
Founded in 1999, Victorville-based California Charter Academy eventually became the largest chain of charter schools in the state. At its peak, CCA had more than 60 sites serving 12,000 students. Cox also started Educational Administrative Services Corp., a for-profit company to provide management services to the schools. Cox served as CEO for the charter school and EASC. Honeycutt worked for the administrative services company.
CCA suddenly closed in August 2004. An April 2005 audit commissioned by the state Department of Education accused Cox and Honeycutt of misappropriating $23 million in state and federal funds meant for the schools. The pair allegedly spent the money on trips to Disneyland and on high-end Jet Skis for the High Desert charter school, among other things.
Two years later, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office filed charges against the pair. Cox was accused of making $5.5 million in payments to EASC without the charter school board’s approval or knowledge. Charter schools are public schools and subject to California’s open-government rules.
Cox was charged with 56 counts of misappropriation of public funds, 56 counts of grand theft and one count of failing to file a tax return. He faces up to 64 years in prison.
Honeycutt was charged with 15 counts of misappropriation of public funds, 15 counts of grand theft, three counts of failure to file a state tax return and one count of filing a false tax return. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Both men deny wrongdoing. They have declined to comment on the case before it’s resolved.
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Why the delays
Since 2007, Cox and Honeycutt have gone through multiple defense attorneys, three different courthouses and almost 90 pre-trial hearings, the last 35 before Superior Court Judge Jon Ferguson.
Honeycutt’s political connections, the volume of material required to present a case, and the passage of time have all made getting to trial more complicated.
Honeycutt was the third member of his family elected to public office. He served as a Hesperia city councilmember from 2000 to 2008. In the 1990s, his father, Theron, was a councilmember. His mother, Kathleen, represented the High Desert in the state Assembly.
Tad Honeycutt was also active in Republican politics, raising campaign funds for other elected officials. Several judges in Victorville Superior Court recused themselves from his case. It was moved to Fontana and then Rancho Cucamonga as a result.
Meanwhile, Cox has gone through four defense attorneys. The first two stepped down due to workload concerns — the prosecution presented 52,000 pages of discovery and 456 exhibits to the grand jury in 2005 — or conflicts of interest. His third attorney died and his fourth withdrew, citing a conflict of interest.
Cox, 76, is retired and lives in Arizona. Honeycutt, 61, lives overseas, complicating supervised parole if he takes a plea deal. Both men now commute to Rancho Cucamonga for court appearances.
Representatives of the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Cox and Honeycutt are next scheduled to appear before Ferguson on Oct. 25. It will be approximately their 90th pre-trial hearing.
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