Cornell Jones, the director of the nonprofit which is being sued by the city for allegedly using grant funds designed to help people with HIV/AIDS to help build a strip club, is quite the character — what, with the drug convictions and calling Councilmembers gay slurs and all. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s channeling his displeasure with the city’s lawsuit into legal action of his own.
Rend Smith reports that Jones is countersuing the District for $2 million, claiming that the city government discriminated against Miracle Hands Inc.:
According to court papers, though Miracle Hands used HIV/AIDS funds to retain an architect who drew up plans for renovating the warehouse Jones eventually sold to the owners of Stadium Club, there wasn’t any actual construction, since plans for the project moved to another warehouse before that could happen. The suit says all renovations were done at 2145 Queens Chapel Road NE, a spot that was selected after Miracle Hands realized rehabbing 2127 would be too expensive. It also says that the city got its classes: Miracle Hands hired teachers to run job training courses at 2127 while 2145 was being fixed up.
By 2008, the suit implies, those classes were derailed by racism. Miracle Hands was promised some $500,000 in funding to get their center up and running, but the organization was stiffed when the city rerouted the money to non-blacks.
“From March 2007 – March 2008 the Defendant refused to provide the Plaintiff Miracle Hands the agreed upon funds to finish the rehabilitation at 2145,” says the suit. “The Plaintiff’s representatives met with representatives of the Defendant to no avail. The Plaintiff’s representatives were informed that the money was now going to another organization whose founders and people ran the organization was outside of the Plaintiff’s protected class. They were not African American.”
Jones is also claiming that the city defamed him in a press release from the Office of the Inspector General announcing the lawsuit. Given Jones’ penchant for speaking his mind, one almost hopes that all this ends up with him on the witness stand in some capacity — of course, Jones’ attorneys would probably disagree.
