ST. CROIX — Mon Ethos Pro Support LLC, in response to the Virgin Islands government’s breach of contract claim against the technology company for support services to the VI Police Department, maintains it has attempted to return evidence and does not intend to delete any data.
The VI government recently filed a civil complaint in Superior Court in the St. Thomas/St. John District against Mon Ethos Pro Support (MEPSVI) alleging that the St. Thomas-based company breached its year-long contract with the VIPD to deliver investigative support services through September 30.
The complaint, filed last Friday by the VI Department of Justice against Mon Ethos and its owner and CEO, David Whitaker, claims the company has failed to properly safeguard and return evidence to the VIPD.
The evidence includes cellphones, laptops, and tablets containing investigative data that were entrusted to the company for forensic analysis and are necessary for the prosecution of certain criminal cases, according to the complaint.
The defendants allegedly utilized the threat of data deletion as leverage in a financial dispute with the VI Police Department over contested invoices totaling $479,795. The evidence in question is connected to multiple pending criminal cases and investigations, including homicide and other felonies. The government claims the alleged refusal by the company to return the property, and the alleged threat to delete the data constitutes a willful and intentional conversion of VIPD’s property, depriving the police department of its rights and lawful use of the property.
As a result of the defendants’ issuance of vague, non-specific, and seemingly unjustified invoices to VIPD, there exists a lack of clarity and certainty regarding the financial transactions conducted, and an accounting is necessary to reconcile and clarify the services billed, payments made, and work actually performed, according to the complaint. The government filed a motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent Mon Ethos from destroying evidence and immediately return the items to the VIPD. The government is seeking a court order permitting law enforcement personnel to forcibly enter the Mon Ethos office to retrieve the items in addition to an accounting of work performed.
Whitaker, who is being represented in the case by attorney Alex Golubitsky, said Mon Ethos will be responding to the government’s complaint. He discussed an ongoing effort to return items to the police department.
“We have consistently been in communication with the Department of Justice, as well as with the governor’s office and VIPD, attempting since January to transition evidence and data to them,” he said.
Whitaker, who noted Mon Ethos has not been paid by the VI Police Department for more than six months, said the actions the VIPD is taking are not consistent with a police department that is interested in receiving the evidence and work product in a way that would maintain its integrity. He stressed that Mon Ethos does not intend to destroy any of the items.
“We will make the next step the right one and will not be forced to take one that is incorrect for any reason,” Whitaker said.
The DOJ, in a memorandum of law in support of its motion for TRO and preliminary injunction, indicated that the government agreed to work through any disputes to ensure payment of any monies properly due, but that the government required possession of its property in the meantime. The government included in its filing as evidence a July 10 letter to Golubitsky from attorney Sherri Lewis, VIPD legal counsel, indicating the overdue invoices were being processed, and requesting Mon Ethos return all evidence.
The government also included as an exhibit a July 31 letter to Whitaker from Acting Police Commissioner Mario Brooks requesting the immediate return of the items. Brooks referenced a July 23 letter from Mon Ethos that requested payment of all pending invoices in response to the July 10 letter from Lewis. The July 31 letter requested all materials be turned over to VIPD by August 1. Curtis Jones, of Mon Ethos, wrote the acting police commissioner and acknowledged receipt of his July 31 correspondence, according to an exhibit filed in the case, which has been assigned to Judge Carol Thomas-Jacobs.
Jones noted the primary concern of Mon Ethos was maintaining the integrity of the data, the chain of custody of evidence, and the overall work product that Mon Ethos has developed and maintained for the VI Police Department, according to a court document. He wrote that the abrupt demand for immediate turnover (in less than 24 hours) without proper planning poses substantial risks to the evidence and ongoing investigations, noting that disruptions could lead to data integrity issues, loss of crucial information, and potentially jeopardize criminal prosecutions.
“Since January 2024, MEPSVI has proposed several thoughtful and proper transfer of the work product and data,” Jones wrote. “VIPD has shown little or no interest in a properly designed transfer of data.”
Editor’s note: Mon Ethos filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on Tuesday, August 5 for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Golubitsky argued in the motion that the contract between Mon Ethos and the VIPD does not anticipate that any of the work product prepared by MEPSVI will become the property of any person besides MEPSVI until the termination of the contract itself. He argued that the complaint does not state a claim for conversion, for accounting, for spoliation of evidence, for violation of the Computer Crimes and Technology Act, or for breach of contract.
