The End is Near

The incestuous relationship between Wheeling College and Bishop Michael Bransfield is over, for ever.  The funds he donated to the college were nothing other than the down payment for the property which he knows in heading toward bankruptcy.  The "Davitt" case is bad enough. But the sexual antics of "sugar daddy" is too much even for a hardened lawyer like myself to hear. Well, almost too much.

Some years ago, Bransfield is alleged to have said on the phone to the man in the Philly courtroom: "I'm going to have Stanley put you on a train and come down and see me sometime."  If this is true, then he needs to wire his resignation to Pope Benedict by COB today.

The arrogance this bishop of the RC Church had to humiliate the Sisters of the Visitation by denying them the right to sell their own property to the college.  The arrogance he had, out of jealousy, to demand Fr. Giulietti's dismissal.

What goes around comes around.  The rats are leaving the ship.

- Larry

Feds probe NASA fraud by WJU & McAteer

A Federal Grand Jury probe is focusing on NASA fraud by Wheeling Jesuit University and by WJU Vice President J. Davitt McAteer. The investigation appears to center on whether WJU diverted taxpayer dollars via fraudulent billing expenses.

Witness affidavits supporting the warrants for the 2/16/12 raid upon the WJU campus will be kept secret for another 60 days. Yesterday (4/12/12) U.S. Magistrate James E. Seibert denied McAteer's motion to have that information unsealed. Wheeling Jesuit University also argued unsuccessfully to have the witness affidavits unsealed. The U.S. Attorney expects more current and former employees of Wheeling Jesuit University to appear before his grand jury.

"The reputation of Mr. McAteer and Wheeling Jesuit University have been thrown into question by publicity surrounding the search," saith McAteer's criminal lawyer. So who is to blame for WJU's most recent bad publicity -- McAteer or the courageous whistle-blowers who are testifying before the grand jury?

On February 16, 2012, federal agents seized files from McAteer's WJU campus office, and from his home office in the eastern panhandle. Agents of NASA and other federal agencies from all over the country converged upon the campus, and simultaneously upon McAteer's eastern panhandle estate. In Wheeling, they took all the WJU files and WJU computers from the 3rd and 4th floors of the National Technology Transfer Center (one of the Byrd buildings). Then they confiscated all the private files and computers belonging to Davitt McAteer.

J. Davitt McAteer, Vice President of Wheeling Jesuit University since 2005 (and Interim-President-Emeritus), was recently inducted into WJU's Hall of Honor.

William J. Ihlenfeld, II, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling Division), recently implemented the Northern District Financial Crimes Task Force (Racket Squad).

To the Associated Press, WJU's Richard Beyer referred all questions to Michelle Rejonis who refused to discuss the matter. Well, no change there; same old stonewall still in place. The McAteer/Shea agenda of stonewalled silence and secrecy following the August 2009 firing of WJU's President Julio Giulietti, S.J., continued through multiple scandals ensuing thereafter. Now the Cardinals have come home to roost.

For more details, click these news reports from Jackson, Mississippi and from Wheeling, West Virginia, and from Blithe Spirit.

Mike Fahy
Quartus

The painful truth finally is surfacing

Just before Easter, I had lunch in Washington with a Wheeling College faculty member.  He was secretly in the DC area seeking interviews for a job.  He told me that the college's president, Mr. Beyer, had finally admitted to the employees that the college is in a precarious condition.  The student body has dwindled.  Even with investing lots of borrowed money to hire new recruiters, over the third year the college did not come close to the number of new students it needs to cover costs.  (Not counting the drop-outs.)  Not many high school students are interested in attending the college even when the school is giving away entrance.  Its final drawing card, that it is a Jesuit college, had been erased with the debacle of the unjust firing of Fr. Giulietti.

More news: Joe Bock, director of development, and elder brother of the Bock on the Wheeling Board - nepotism if I ever heard of it - was fired by Mr. Beyer. The great hope did not produce much of anything.  Where is Fr. Julio when you need him?

Finally the Jesuits.  Jesuit sources in DC say that the Order agreed on a few colleges they expect to "go under" over the next three to five years.  Wheeling is the first candidate.  When will they admit this publicly?  When will Mr. Beyer fess up to the employees?   What plans does Bishop Bransfield have for the former Jesuit school?

These facts add further nails to the coffin.

- Larry