Jury deliberating in trial of Dayton businessman Brian Higgins [Dayton Daily News, Ohio]

Dayton Daily News (OH)

Jan. 20—A federal jury is now considering the fate of Dayton businessman Brian Higgins, whose trial on charges related to alleged insurance fraud began on Jan. 10.

Higgins, 50, of Dayton, pleaded not guilty to three counts of mail fraud, two counts of tampering with a witness, and two counts of tampering with a witness with intent to retaliate, according to documents filed with U.S. District Court. He is accused of defrauding insurance company Assurant of more than $100,000 the company paid him in 2014 for repairs that were to be made to a home he co-owned on Meeker Drive in Dayton.

The witness tampering charges were related to a civil lawsuit he filed against Mike Marshall, Scott Waters and their now-defunct company United Demolition Excavation and Site Management of Dayton. Higgins sued them in 2020 in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, claiming he had hired them to do the repairs to the home and but they did not do the work. That case was stayed in December 2020, pending the outcome of the federal criminal trial.

On Friday Marshall and Waters testified for the prosecution in Higgins trial, court documents show. The government rested its case on Tuesday and then Higgins took the stand in his own defense before U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Rose. Closing arguments began Wednesday and the jury is now deliberating.

Higgins is the final defendant of those indicted as part of a federal public corruption investigation in the Dayton region announced in 2019. Unlike the other defendants his case did not involve public contracting allegations. Authorities said they became aware of Higgins' alleged criminal activities in the course of that broader investigation.

That investigation led to the convictions of: — Former Dayton city commissioner Joey D. Williams, 55, of Dayton, on one count of corruptly soliciting a bribe. — Former state representative Clayton Luckie, 58, of Dayton on one count of mail fraud. — Former Dayton city employee RoShawn Winburn, 47, of Huber Heights on one count of corruptly soliciting a bribe. — Green Star Trucking, owned by former Trotwood Mayor Joyce Sutton Cameron, 73, on one count of conspiracy to engage in mail fraud. — Steve Rauch Inc., owned by Steve Rauch, 66, of Germantown, on one count of conspiracy to engage in mail fraud.

The two companies were fined, Luckie served his term and Williams was released from prison early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Winburn is scheduled to begin serving his term on May 10.

United Demolition was the company Williams took a bribe from to assist in obtaining a city contract, and it ultimately did such poor work that the city withheld payment on those contracts, a 2020 Dayton Daily News investigation found. The investigation also found that Marshall was the confidential FBI informant who recorded Williams and Higgins. Marshall previously denied he was the informant.

Two confidential informants described as operators of a Dayton area demolition company "agreed to cooperate with the FBI in part to minimize their individual exposure to potential criminal charges for their respective roles in a scheme to defraud local government entities," according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Williams' case. It also says both informants "have received monetary payments from the FBI."

Higgins was owner of the now-defunct Sidebar 410 restaurant in the Oregon District. Another previous business of his, GSSP Enterprise, had a contract to haul bodies for the Montgomery County Coroner's office. That contract was terminated after a 2012 Dayton Daily News investigation found GSSP was delinquent on hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal and state taxes, and that Higgins had an undisclosed business relationship with Ken Betz, who was then the director of the coroner's office.

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