There will not be any criminal charges filed in the dispute over the ownership of Wecycle Industrial Sanitation in Benton Harbor and who is authorized to be paid for their service by the city of Benton Harbor. Berrien County Prosecutor Michael Sepic says even though Virginia Huddleston, Robert Edwards, and Jewell Allen all signed a document in October 2017 establishing that all three are “members and/or managers or Wecycle,” the three “failed to organize their company effectively.” Edwards typically picked up the monthly check from the city for the trash services and ran the business, but Huddleston took the payment on October 31 2019 and opened an account at Chemical Bank in the name of Wecycle Industrial Sanitation LLC.
Sepic says it is clear she was acting in what she believed to be the interest of the company with no evidence to the contrary, and there is “insufficient proof to suggest Huddleston embezzled or received the money under false pretenses.” No trash was picked up in Benton Harbor for over a week because of that, as Edwards says it prevented him from having enough money to run the business. Huddleston did pay some expenses of the business out of that $39,353 check before the account was frozen, and Sepic says it’s unclear who should take possession of the remainder of that money. He adds that decision is out of the hands of the criminal investigation and should be resolved by the three owners of the business.
You can read the full statement from the prosecutor by clicking here.
