Zachary Cruz starts his new life in Virginia
Electronic monitoring firm lines up free place to stay, first job of life.
Zachary Cruz began his new life this week, moving into a rent-free condo apartment in Staunton, Va., on Sunday, then starting a $13-an-hour gig as a maintenance man on Monday.
The 18-year-old brother of Majory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is getting the opportunity to get away from South Florida and escape the shadow of his notorious sibling thanks to Michael Donovan, a 30-something-year-old with a criminal past who evolved into the chief executive of a multimillion dollar organization.
Nexus Services, a Virginia-based electronic monitoring company that Donovan began in 2012, is Cruz’s benefactor.
On May 3, Nexus officials held a news conference in Fort Lauderdale, announcing they were filing a federal lawsuit on Cruz’s behalf, accusing Broward County Jail employees of “torturing” the teenager following his arrest in March for trespassing on Stoneman Douglas’ campus, where his brother killed 17 people on Valentine’s Day.
The company has also hired a defense attorney for Cruz, put him up in a hotel after he was kicked out of his Lantana-area mobile home and provided him free room and board in Virginia for the next year and the first job of his life.
“He’s literally the 18-year-old me,” Donovan said Monday.
“The difference is I didn’t have the whole world wishing me failure like he does. Being Nikolas’ brother, he lives a pressure that I can’t imagine.”
Donovan said he began a mis-
sion “to stand with people that need it” after he was arrested at age 18 for passing bad checks.
A judge ordered Donovan held on $45,500 bail. He said his parents couldn’t come up with the bond, forcing Donovan to remain in jail for seven months.
“I said to myself, ‘I’m going to do something about this,’ ” Donovan said. “It is an absolute injustice for someone to sit in jail because they can’t pay a bail bond.”
That eventually led to the creation of Nexus Services and company branches such as Nexus Libre, an immigration bond service that assists undocumented immigrants caught up in the legal system.
Nexus Libre, Donovan said, has aided more than 15,000 undocumented people, some who would have languished in immigration custody for months and maybe years with no hope of getting out because they were unable to post bonds.
In exchange for their release, Donovan said immigrants sign contracts requiring them to pay from $250 to $475 monthly while wearing the company’s ankle monitors.
For those who can’t afford it, fees are often reduced or completely waived, Donovan said.
But the company isn’t without its detractors.
Accused of preying on the immigrants it purports to help, Nexus Libre is being investigated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as attorneys general in three states: Virginia, Washington and New York.
The contracts have also been the target of individual immigrants who said they didn’t understand the deals they signed and claim that Nexus is getting rich offff poor people.
“We’ re not afraid of a healthy review. In fact, we support it,” Donovan said of the investigations. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
The political nature of Nexus’ work, especially regarding a topic as divisive as immigration, “makes us more of a lightning rod,” Donovan said.
“We’re consistent with our values 100 percent of the time, whether it’s popular or not popular,” Donovan said. “Honestly, helping Zach is not popular. I’m shocked at how unpopular it is. But it’s about doing the right thing.”
According to Nexus officials, Cruz contacted the company after he was arrested for trespassing March 19 in Parkland and held on $500,000 bail for a second-degree misdemeanor that typically results in $25 bail.
Donovan said he immediately became involved because the case involved an “egregious” trampling of Cruz’s constitutional rights. After he was arrested for the probation violation May 1, Cruz was kicked out of the Lantana-area home he had lived in since his adoptive mother died last fall.
Donovan housed Cruz in a hotel and pushed to get Cruz’s probation status changed so that he could move to Virginia.
A judge approved the request at a hearing Friday.
In Virginia, Cruz will live in a home leased by Terry Ann Johnson, a Nexus employee. Johnson testifified last week that she will be in daily contact with Cruz and guaranteed that he will attend scheduled therapy sessions and meet other requirements.
Johnson indicated to Judge Me linda Brown that she could uniquely relate to Cruz because her own “brother” once shot 12 people.
Johnson didn’t provide details in court of that story and declined to do so when reached Monday by a Post reporter beyond saying the incident happened “a long time ago” and involved “a close relative.” The shootings, if they occurred, could not be verifified by a Post researcher Tuesday.
“He’s a good kid and has a great spirit,” Johnson said of Cruz.
Donovan said he did “horrible stuffff ” compared to what Zachary Cruz has been accused of.
According to the The News Leader in Staunton, court records show that Donovan has at least 10 convictions between 1998 and 2009 for writing bad checks or obtaining money under false pretenses in several cities in Virginia.
Speaking of one of his arrests, Donovan said he wouldn’t change the outcome, because dealing with the legal system has “profoundly changed me.”
Nexus Services began with six employees but has grown to more than 200 employees with 30 offiffices around the country and, according to The Washington Post, $30 million in yearly revenue.
Donovan disputes the newspaper’ s accounting and says the company’s bottom line is, “How many lives did we save today?” and not money.
That’s why Nexus decided to throw its support behind Cruz, Donovan said.
“He’s a sweet kid,” Donovan said. “He told me, ‘Things are bad, but they will get better.’ Zach gets it. He’s going to do great things. I really believe that.”