University of Texas Law’s former facilities director, Jason Shoumaker, was arrested Thursday on six charges of tampering with government records. Specifically, Shoumaker is accused of tampering with his time sheets to log full 8-hour days at work while he was, apparently, regularly galavanting around Vegas and Cozumel.
As fireable offenses go, the most impressive is always the full Cooper Harris — don’t go to work, continue answering messages as though you are, and see how long you can drag it out. I knew a Biglaw attorney who just ghosted and it took weeks for the firm to figure it out. According to the Tribune story, Shoumaker managed to pull it off for over a year.
“Everything ok?” the colleague wrote to Shoumaker on April 3, 2017, according to the affidavit.
“Yes, on my way to work,” Shoumaker texted in response. In fact, Shoumaker was likely in Las Vegas that day, the document says – citing a flurry of charges to his card that included $44.20 at a Hooters Restaurant and $81.00 for a professional massage.
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Without fail, if a law school official gets tagged for wrongdoing, there’s a Hooters charge involved. Vegas was only one of the locales Shoumaker allegedly visited while claiming to work. The Virgin Islands, Miami, and Cozumel are also at play in the prosecution’s case. But this might still just scratch the surface of the trouble here.
Shoumaker isn’t accused at this time of using university money to finance these trips, the Texas Tribune cites a source familiar with the Travis County DA’s probe claiming that Shoumaker is “at the heart of a major fraud investigation – one that potentially involves ‘several million dollars of questionable expenses,'” which doesn’t sound encouraging.
Everything’s bigger in Texas, I suppose.
Former University of Texas law school official arrested as part of ongoing fraud investigation [Texas Tribune]
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Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.