Attorney for Nexus owner and company executive withdraws from theft case

STAUNTON — The attorney for two men accused of stealing nearly a half-million dollars from the brother of convicted Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz withdrew from the case Friday after Augusta County Commonwealth's Attorney Tim Martin filed a motion in March to have her removed.

Mike Donovan, majority owner of Nexus Services Inc., and Timothy Shipe, an executive at the embattled company, are charged in the case along with Richard Moore, Donovan's spouse and a former part-owner of Nexus. Moore is currently behind bars in an unrelated case.

In October 2022, the Augusta County Sheriff's Office and Virginia State Police converged on the offices of Nexus Services Inc. in Verona, as well as the Fishersville home of Donovan and Moore. The searches followed grand jury indictments against the couple on felony charges of obtaining money by false pretenses and conspiracy to commit a felony, as well as two charges of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. Shipe is charged with financial exploitation and obtaining money by false pretenses.

Up until Friday, Donovan and Shipe were both being represented by attorney Amina Matheny-Willard. However, she filed a motion that same day to withdraw from the case, nixing a motions hearing that'd been scheduled in Augusta County Circuit Court.

Motion to disqualify Matheny-Willard

In March, Martin filed a motion to disqualify Matheny-Willard, citing conflicts that stretched from Florida to Virginia, and also pointing out that she was attempting to simultaneously represent the suspects and the victim in the case.

Martin said the conflict started in Florida a few years ago. Shortly after Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people and wounded 17 others in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, police arrested his brother, Zachary Cruz, for reportedly trespassing at the school. He was held without bond. Martin said it was around this time the Cruz brothers came into a large annuity from the death of their mother. Moore and Donovan were soon traveling to Florida.

"Richard Moore and Michael Donovan then arrived in Broward County, Florida and took over representation and assumed responsibility of Zachary Cruz," Martin said in the motion. After Cruz was released on bond to Augusta County, Martin said, Donavan, Moore and Shipe "worked together to take all of Zachary's inheritance from him."

Court files show that in 2019, Cruz opened a joint checking account with Moore. He listed his residence on Windsong Court in Fishersville, where Moore and Donovan also reside.

Initially generated by the FBI, the case alleges Donovan posed as an employee from a law office that supposedly represented Cruz, that Shipe reportedly represented himself as Cruz, and Moore purportedly conducted a wire transfer of $300,000 that once belonged to Cruz.

Martin also noted in the motion that Matheny-Willard represented Cruz in Broward County, where concerns about the relationship between Cruz and the Augusta County couple were brought up at the time. "There were red flags raised with a pending federal investigation into Zachary's finances. Additionally, there was suspicion that some, if not all the parties, were attempting to seek financial gain from the notoriety of the murders of 17 innocent people in Marjory Stoneman High School," Martin said in the motion.

Matheny-Willard, a Norfolk attorney who represented Moore in Florida as well, is also Cruz's attorney on a local traffic matter where he was ordered to perform 30 hours of litter pickup. Martin said on Feb. 23 that Matheny-Willard, Donovan and Cruz all showed up for his litter pickup, and said Matheny-Willard asked if she could volunteer to pick up trash with Cruz.

After the request was denied, along with another request to allow her to follow the litter crew van, Matheny-Willard demanded to know where the vehicle was headed, stating she was concerned authorities might try to converse with Cruz, according to the motion.

A week later during another litter pickup, Martin said Matheny-Willard again accompanied Cruz. At the scene, she told a member of the Augusta County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, who is part of the litter pickup program, that she instructed Cruz not to speak with anyone from the prosecutor's office during the cleanup. "Thus shielding the victim from our office," the prosecutor noted.

In his motion, Martin said there is "simply no way" Matheny-Willard could maintain a duty of loyalty and confidentiality to Cruz, Donovan and Shipe. "All three men have competing interests in this trial," he said.

Two weeks to find attorneys

After Matheny-Willard withdrew from the case Friday, Circuit Judge Shannon Sherrill told both Donovan and Shipe they have two weeks to find new attorneys. An eight-day jury trial is scheduled to start July 27.

Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that Donovan, Moore, and Evan Ajin, a vice president at Nexus, pay a staggering sum of $811 million in a federal lawsuit filed by three states and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which accused them of violating various state consumer protection laws. Nexus and its subsidiary, Libre by Nexus, were also defendants in the lawsuit. An appeal has been filed, court records show.

Last summer, the former Verona campus for Nexus was auctioned off on the front steps of the Augusta County Courthouse for $3.4 million after the property went into foreclosure.

Moore is currently serving a nine-month jail sentence for perjury.

Was Nexus sold last week?

Last week, court papers were filed in the CFPB case stating Donovan had sold his company for $3.50 to a Pennsylvania man, Vincent J. Smith. It's not clear if the sale went through. In trying to ascertain if the sale was finalized, The News Leader reached out to Smith, who said to contact Nexus attorney Zachary Lawrence. When asked if the company had been sold, Lawrence was mum, stating in a text that he does not comment "on matters concerning pending litigation."

Other attorneys listed in court documents connected to the sale of the former Verona company also did not respond to inquiries Monday morning.

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Brad Zinn is the cops, courts and breaking news reporter at The News Leader. Have a news tip? Or something that needs investigating? You can email reporter Brad Zinn (he/him) at bzinn@newsleader.com. You can also follow him on X (formerly Twitter).