The Follow-Up Exclusive: ‘The Semantic Shuffle’
PHANTOM OR PERMITTED? DHS Spokesman Backtracks on 'Volunteer' Claim as Mars Hill Mystery Deepens
WHO’S ZOOMIN’ WHO? A St. Croix Sun investigative roadmap of the impending judicial confrontation at the Superior Court. Magistrate Judge Yolan Brow-Ross (Top Left) must decide if the DHS, led by Commissioner Averil George (Bottom Left), has flouted a direct order barring SNAP fraud defendant Lisaminelli Montanez (Bottom Right) from the Mars Hill office. While DHS Communications Director Ryan Nugent (Bottom Left) claims the individual on the line was a "phantom namesake" stationed in St. Thomas, a territory-wide Sun audit found zero digital footprints for the alleged namesake. The showdown now centers on the one truth that cannot be "fudged": the GVI biometric time-clock logs.
By JOHN McCARTHY / St. Croix Sun Investigative Reporter
In a stunning late-night reversal, DHS Communications Director Ryan Nugent has pivoted from his initial claim that a "new volunteer" was answering phones at the Mars Hill office. In a second email sent at approximately 8:15 p.m., Nugent now asserts that the individual—who identifies as "Montanez"—is actually a "fully vetted, official DHS employee" and that his previous use of the word "volunteer" was intended as a verb, not a noun.
The "Woodstein" Breakdown:
The First Story: Nugent initially claimed the worker wouldn’t be in the GVI database because she was a "new volunteer worker."
The Pivot: Once confronted with the fact that the GVI database only lists one Montanez in the department (the defendant), Nugent "clarified" that the worker is indeed in the database—just a different one.
The Geography Problem: While Nugent points to Dashurn Montanez as the likely candidate, records suggest she is stationed in St. Thomas. This leaves a glaring question: Why would a St. Thomas employee "volunteer" to answer the phones for a Frederiksted office currently under a court-ordered lockdown?
Actual Facebook post by DHS Communications Director Ryan Nugent tonight.
The ‘Docket’ Strategy for Judge Brow-Ross
If the court calls the roll tomorrow, here is the "Cage Match" roster the St. Croix Sun has set up:
Commissioner Averil George: To explain how "volunteers" (verbs or nouns) are being vetted and who is actually in charge of the Mars Hill facility.
Ryan Nugent: To explain why he provided conflicting employment statuses for the individual on the line.
The "Two" Montanezes: To verify which one was actually sitting at the desk in Frederiksted at 2:00 p.m. today.
The IT/Biometric Director: To produce the "eyeball scan" or fingerprint logs that confirm .Lisaminelli Montanezdidn’t work Monday and Tuesday, but her “St. Thomas namesake” Dashurn Montanez did.
