Judge Rules Woodpile Contract Cases May Proceed Separately

The case of a St. Croix couple accused in a $4 million scheme to defraud taxpayers through a contract to store wood for the territory’s hurricane recovery will be heard separately from that of a former V.I. Housing Finance Authority executive who was charged alongside them, V.I. District Court Judge Wilma A. Lewis has ruled.

Davidson Charlemagne and his wife, Sasha Charlemagne, each filed motions in V.I. District Court in July to sever their case from that of Darin Richardson, former chief operating officer of the VIHFA. Richardson subsequently filed his own motion to sever.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office rejected their calls, arguing in response that while the defendants are charged with different offenses, all three were engaged in the same “series of acts or transactions, constituting an offense or offenses,’” as required under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure governing the joinder of cases.

The trio was arrested in June after a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Davidson Charlemagne with government program fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy; his wife with money laundering conspiracy; and Richardson of St. Thomas with criminal conflict of interest and making materially false statements.