ST. LOUIS听鈥 Federal prosecutors have charged a second woman in what they say was a scheme to steal more than $2 million from a federally funded program to feed low-income children.
Terra Davis was indicted Oct. 9 on two counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for using a nonprofit, Sister of Lavender Rose, to claim federal funds meant to pay for meals at schools under a Missouri-administered nutrition program.
Davis was the second-in-command at the nonprofit, prosecutors said, working with its leader, Cymone McClellan, to submit false meal counts and other documents to Missouri officials in order to claim millions of dollars for meals they never served.
McClellan was indicted last month for her role in the alleged scheme. The new indictment named Davis as a co-defendant and added a conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge plus two more wire fraud charges to the four counts McClellan was charged with last month.
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McClellan pleaded not guilty to the extra charges in federal court Wednesday. Her lawyer, Talmage Newton IV, declined to comment after the hearing, but he previously said the charges were based on 鈥渕istaken assumptions鈥澨齛nd a 鈥渕isunderstanding鈥 of her business practices, adding McClellan 鈥has always acted in the best interests of the children and communities she serves.鈥
A lawyer for Davis, Craig Concannon, declined to comment on the charges against her.听Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman, who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.
The Post-Dispatch reported in January 2023 that Sister of Lavender Rose had purchased a residential condo in Florissant and that state inspectors who went to the address listed as the nonprofit鈥檚 food preparation site found themselves outside of Elmo鈥檚 Love Lounge, a University City bar. State reports showed听the nonprofit was only serving bags of Cheez-Its and pretzels at听Hazelwood Central High, where it was supposed to be serving meals to students.
Federal investigators later discovered that the听nonprofit had only purchased enough food to serve a quarter of the听860,876听meals it claimed to have distributed to kids in the region. Prosecutors now say McClellan used more than $200,000 in federal food reimbursement funds for a Lexus and other vehicles and used $60,000 to make a down payment on a home in Collinsville.
McClellan and Sisters of Lavender Rose worked with a food delivery company owned by Lorenzo Gordon, who played pro basketball abroad and whose former girlfriend,听Brittish 鈥淐ierrah鈥 Williams, appeared on the VH1 reality TV show 鈥淏asketball Wives.鈥听Gordon pleaded guilty last month on unrelated charges for lying to obtain $237,000 in emergency pandemic business loans. Williams was also sentenced in 2023 to four years in prison for unrelated fraud charges.