Case against VUU president in Florida appears stalled
Jeremy M. Lazarus | 1/25/2019, 6 a.m.
Bethune-Cookman University in Florida appears to have halted its legal effort to hold former top officials accountable for their alleged role in saddling the Daytona Beach school with an overly expensive dormitory.
The last documents in the case — in which current Virginia Union University President Hakim J. Lucas, is a named defendant — were filed in July.
Since then, Bethune-Cookman has not taken any steps to get the Volusia Circuit Court to hold hearings or set a trial date. Nothing further is scheduled, the court reported.
Dr. Lucas served as the vice president for institutional advancement at Bethune-Cookman from 2012 until becoming VUU’s president in September 2017.
Bethune-Cookman officials filed the lawsuit a year ago, and the online file shows vigorous denials from Dr. Lucas and other defendants to the university’s claims. All of the defendants asked the court to dismiss the case.
The main claim of the university is that former officials who held top management posts unscrupulously arranged to have the university enter into a lease deal with a private company for a new dorm that is projected to cost the university more than $300 million over the 40-year life of the agreement.
The defendants responded that they acted properly on behalf of the university, whose board reviewed and approved the deal to add more housing, and that the university’s allegations of illegality are false.
