State Suing Two Minnesota Colleges For Deceptive Practices
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A private college program designed to train students to become police officers is battling its own legal troubles.
In 2012 the U.S. Senate issued a scathing report on the failures and high cost of for-profit colleges. In a Hennepin County Courtroom on Monday, two of them went under the gun.
The state is suing Globe University and the Minnesota School of Business, claiming they recruit students into law enforcement training that has little chance of landing them a job.
"A lot of the students who are going to testify in this case wanted to be police officers in Minnesota, but the program does not make someone eligible to become a police officer in the state, and the program costs $80,000," said Alan Gilbert, Minnesota Solicitor General.
Gilbert adds even if students transferred to an accredited program, their credits did not.
But it's the school's recruitment tactics that prosecutors compare to the film "The Wolf of Wall Street." They claim the school's recruiters were driven by hitting sales numbers and acted out of profit pressures and not in the best interests of students.
"In fact, the school really enrolled anybody in the program," Gilbert said.
Defense attorney Joe Anthony says selling and marketing an education is not illegal.
"They don't deceive, they don't mislead students," he said.
Anthony also compared its marketing and recruitment to other schools like the University of Minnesota. He claims the state's licensing practices are biased to protect state sponsored programs.
"Why is Minnesota so unique? Because those on the POST (Police Officer Standards Training) board are regional competitors and they're keeping the competition out. It's not more complicated than that," Anthony said.
Among the first to testify was a former recruiter, Ashley LeGrand, who said they "presented themselves as counselors, not sales people."
And in the school's recruiter training manual, they are told, "You are there to enroll that student, not to PR him and leave without a commitment."
Judge James Moore has set aside four weeks for the case -- the state alone has over 100 witnesses, including seven former school employees and about 40 students.
The state is seeking an injunction to have the recruitment practices stopped, but it also wants monetary damages -- which could run into the millions of dollars.
If successful, the state will ask the judge to order refunds for students who paid anywhere from $30,000 to $80,000 for a law enforcement degree that was essentially worthless in Minnesota.