The ousted superintendent of Dohn Community High School and his business associate have been federally indicted in connection with fraud allegations.
Court records show the indictment against Ramone Davenport and Larry Ballew was unsealed on Sept. 3 in federal court in Cincinnati.
U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II, FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge Jason Cromartie and Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber are expected to provide an update about the roughly two-year investigation at a press conference set for 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 3 at the FBI's Cincinnati field office.
Dohn abruptly closed in March 2025. It opened more than 20 years ago to serve students with few other educational options, focusing on dropout recovery and enrolling teens from high-crime neighborhoods and unstable homes. Like other charter schools, Dohn was publicly funded but operated independently from traditional school districts.
School officials have blamed the school's sudden collapse on Superintendent Ramone Davenport, who was fired in September 2024 amid allegations of financial mismanagement and fraud.
The Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, the school's nonprofit sponsor, emailed investigators in the Ohio auditor's office in June 2024 outlining concerns about "outrageous spending." It alerted investigators to high spending levels in fiscal year 2024, stating that $4.2 million of taxpayer money was at stake.
Davenport and the school's treasurer cited upgrades to school buildings as the reason for such elevated spending in a single year. The sponsor said Dohn's board didn't further question administrators about those expenses at meetings.
During visits, the nonprofit's staff didn't observe construction or major improvements to the school's locations. The sponsor also noted that Dohn owned only one of its school buildings. Payments from Dohn for construction services went to Ballew for work at a building that the landlord said was never finished, according to lawsuit filings.
The school paid more than $5 million to eight businesses in fiscal year 2024, including to Davenport's school management company, Cincinnati Charter School Collaborative, and businesses run by Ballew. The sponsor said the payments were higher than those to other vendors and "appear to be unsupported by a proper public purpose."
When the sponsor raised concerns about fiscal mismanagement, Dohn launched an investigation and severed ties with Davenport. An attorney representing the school wrote in a court filing that Davenport executed agreements on Dohn's behalf without proper authority and kept those agreements secret from the school board.
One agreement was a lease for an apartment in Puerto Rico that Davenport signed in Dohn's name. He told the board that he wanted to open a school there.
Dohn's cash balance was "dangerously low" by September 2024. Officials believed high enrollment and the school's tendency to increase its enrollment each year would offset the shortfall, court filings state. Dohn received state funding for a student population of 1,600, but Davenport "misrepresented" those enrollment numbers.
Officials learned after the superintendent's ouster that Dohn only enrolled 600 students, according to the filings.
Alongside the allegations of fraud and mismanagement of school finances, an Enquirer investigation revealed that some of Davenport's nightlife businesses were plagued by violence and citations were issued for underage alcohol sales.
The Enquirer will update this story.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Former Dohn charter school superintendent, associate federally indicted