Testimony ends in K9 trainer trial
Testimony wrapped up Wednesday in the trial of the operator of a nowshuttered dog training school charged with bilking the GI Bill program out of $1.2 million.
Bradley Croft, 48, ran Universal K9 until it was shut down last year amid a federal investigation launched over claims he committed fraud to get on a stateapproved list of schools military veterans could use their GI Bill benefits for. Croft chose to have his trial heard by Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra instead of by a jury.
Before the defense presented its case Wednesday, the judge rejected a motion by Croft’s lead lawyer, Tom McHugh, to acquit his client. McHugh said the government had not proved its case and the charges against Croft should be dismissed.
“There was no ghost or bogus vet(erans),” McHugh told Ezra. “They were real. There were real working dogs and classes.
“He was trying, as clumsily as he did, to get this thing going,” McHugh said. “There is no evidence of criminal intent of this defendant.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Surovic said after resting the government’s case that there was enough evidence to convict Croft.
According to prosecution testimony, Croft told the Texas Veterans Commission he had certified training instructors teaching his courses so that he could qualify to receive federal GI Bill benefits — the instructors were certified, but they didn’t teach at his school at the time his program was approved in 2015 and they had not given him permission to use their names. One had been deceased for more than a year.
However, Croft’s lawyers argued that Croft, unsophisticated in the process, did his best in wrangling with the intricacies of the application process.
Croft is accused of laundering $1.2 million he received from the Veterans Administration on a nearly $500,000 luxury motor home and other personal expenses, including a penile implant. Prosecutors said he only reported making $2,000 in income on some of his tax returns, when it was clear he made far more than that.
But McHugh argued that Croft, who first ran a dog training operation out of his home but then went through a nasty divorce and won custody of his teen daughter, used the “bus” as a home. The bus was parked behind office space in the 15000 block of Tradesman, where McHugh used the yard for the school. He had acquired the office space and was in the process of renovating it for office space and classrooms.
“His intent wasn’t to skim the government,” McHugh argued. “He had a dream, and it was finally coming together.”
Before the building could open its doors, Croft’s school was suddenly shut down following a highprofile raid in August 2018 by the FBI and other agencies in which most of his dogs — 26 of 31 — were seized as part of the federal investigation. The animals were taken in by San Antonio’s Animal Care Services.
Two police officers called as defense witnesses on Wednesday, Harlingen Police narcotics investigator Steven Benitez and Madisonville Police Sgt. Jonathan Lawrenz testified they were satisfied with the twoweek training course they took at Universal K9, which sent them home with the dogs they trained with. Benitez was paired with Katniss, a dog Croft rescued from a shelter that now sniffs out narcotics; Lawrenz got Jocko, a Belgian Malinois Croft got from Joint Base San AntonioLackland.
“I would say she has been very successful,” Benitez said of his police dog.
In years past, Croft had been in local and national news for his organization, which donated dogs to several police agencies around the country. He said it was a nonprofit.
Angie Gilstrap, president of the board that runs the Canyon Lake Animal Shelter, testified that she believed Croft was doing good work by helping “balldrive” highenergy dogs, which normally don’t make good house pets. She said Croft took and helped those dogs and pit bulls.
“There’s a lot of animals that need jobs,” Gilstrap testified. “You had this organization that was giving them a job and a purpose.”
The judge told the lawyers to submit closing arguments by Oct. 28. After reviewing them, Ezra will decide on the verdict.
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