STAUNTON — It has been a bad week for Richard E. Moore, a former owner of Nexus Services Inc.

On Monday, a federal judge hammered the company that Moore once partly owned, ordering that he and his husband, Nexus majority owner Mike Donovan, along with Evan Ajin, a vice president and part-owner at Nexus, pay an eye-popping $811 million in a massive civil lawsuit that was filed in 2021 by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the states of Massachusetts, New York and Virginia. Nexus and its subsidiary, Libre by Nexus, were also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Later that same day, Moore — who reneged on a plea deal in an Augusta County perjury case after skipping out on his community service — was denied two motions that sought to have his no contest plea tossed and Circuit Judge Shannon Sherrill recuse himself to allow the case to be heard by another judge.

Sherrill denied the motions, and on Wednesday he sentenced Moore to nine months in jail for lying to an Augusta County magistrate, which initially resulted in a former Nexus employee being charged with assault in Staunton. Indicted in May 2020, Moore’s case dragged on through the pandemic and numerous continuances while he also hired eight different attorneys.

It all started in September 2019 when a process server, David Briggman, also a former Nexus employee, approached Moore’s car while he was making a purchase in the drive-thru of Starbucks on Richmond Avenue in Staunton. Briggman filmed the encounter.

Afterward, Moore went to an Augusta County magistrate and had Briggman charged with assault in Staunton after accusing him of throwing a heavy pack of court documents, supposedly striking him in the neck and chest. But when Staunton prosecutor Jeff Gaines got a look at Briggman’s video, he dropped the assault charge against him. Several months later, Moore was charged with perjury in Augusta County.

The case seemed on its way to closure in September after Moore agreed to plead no contest and perform 40 hours of litter pickup through the Augusta County Litter Control Program. In return the perjury charge was going to be dismissed, but Moore never bothered with the litter. This prompted Augusta County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tim Martin to file a motion in December requesting that Sherrill find Moore guilty of perjury, which he did, setting the stage for Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.

In Augusta County Circuit Court on Wednesday, Moore, who said he now owns a Harrisonburg business, spoke at length as he pleaded with the judge not to put him behind bars. “If I go to jail today, 22 people will lose their jobs,” he said.

Moore claimed he never intended to have Briggman arrested, and said he only wanted a protective order. He said at the time of the incident, Briggman had been constantly contacting him through social media, and said he feared him. “Judge, I was scared,” he said.

Moore said when he saw Briggman approaching him that day in the Starbucks drive-thru, he was carrying an object and said he thought he was about to be shot. When he went to see the magistrate afterward, Moore said he had no intention of lying. One of his three attorneys who sat with him Wednesday at the defense table said Moore really believed an assault had taken place on the day of the incident.

“There was a lack of criminal intent,” said Amina Matheny-Willard. “He did not intend to commit perjury.”

Moore, who spent time in jail in 2011, said he’d been working hard on bettering himself since and didn’t need another stint in jail. “Take a chance on me,” he said.

Sherrill didn’t take him up on the offer. Before sentencing Moore, the judge called his actions “profoundly offensive to the court.” Sherrill sentenced him to five years behind bars with all but nine months suspended. Moore was also placed on three years of probation.

However, his stay behind bars could go well beyond the nine months he received Wednesday.

In July, Moore and Donovan will be tried in Augusta County on allegations they stole $426,000 from the brother of convicted Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz. Timothy Shipe, a Nexus executive, is also charged in the case.

In December, Moore will go to trial as he faces 10 federal charges of employment tax fraud along with two charges of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return, charges that carry a maximum of 56 years. He’s accused of bilking the IRS out of an estimated $1.5 million while he worked at Nexus.

According to the Augusta County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, Moore has been convicted of fraud 11 times and charged with a total of 33 felonies in Virginia, not including his current federal charges. Up until February 2022, he had 39% ownership of Nexus before transferring his interest to Donovan.

Court records show Donovan has a dozen convictions for past crimes, the last coming in 2011. The charges include grand larceny, obtaining money by false pretenses, forgery, and writing bad checks, online court records show.

Nexus, through Libre, helps people secure their release from the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and operates a nationwide business aimed at immigrants held in federal detention. Last summer, the company had its Verona campus sold off at a public auction on the front steps of the Augusta County Courthouse for $3.4 million after the property went into foreclosure.

Brad Zinn is the cops, courts and breaking news reporter at The News Leader. Have a news tip? Or something that needs investigating? You can email reporter Brad Zinn (he/him) at bzinn@newsleader.com. You can also follow him on X (formerly Twitter).

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Former Nexus Services Inc. owner sentenced to jail