When Michael Gross – who’s defending Michael Cox in the Ferrum Capital federal fraud trial – made his opening argument last Monday, he said when the jury hears from people on Cox’s witness list, “You’ll find him not guilty on all four counts.”
Cox and Joshua Allen are the cofounders of Ferrum. They’re accused of conspiracy and wire fraud.
Monday morning the jury heard from five witnesses:
- Two who worked with Cox.
- A woman who praised Cox for helping her son get clean and sober after drug addiction.
- A woman who was a struggling middle-schooler who lauded then-youth minister Cox and his wife Kim for helping her get through a hard time.
- A man who has known Cox from when they were at Texas Tech.
Gross asked all five if they’ve known Cox long enough to know if his character for truthfulness, honesty and law-abidingness was good or bad. All five answered positively.
When the five were done, Gross ended his defense after the Joshua Allen defense rested earlier Monday and that story will be posted later Monday night. Closing arguments will begin Tuesday morning with the jury expected to get the case, possibly late morning or after lunch.
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Rachel Dunn
Dunn has a bookkeeping business but worked for Cox as an executive assistant from 2022 to 2023, even when he moved from the Ferrum office on 66th Street to another location.
Dunn was asked to describe where people were in the 66th Street office.
Her desk was up front, where she greeted people coming in. Cox’s office was to the right.
Gross asked if Cox’s door was usually open or closed and if he had a Bible on his desk. Dunn said the door was usually open and there was a Bible.
“There would be times he’d open to a Scripture … or he’d have a quiet time – that’s what I witnessed,” she said.
Gross asked where Allen and Connie Curry worked. Curry is Allen’s mother-in-law and handled administrative details.
Their offices were further back in the building, and Dunn said she’d go back there with paperwork generated from meetings Cox had with clients and put them on Curry’s desk.
Irene Lance
Lance has known Cox professionally and socially for almost 20 years and has worked for him starting in 2023.
Like Dunn, she said if Cox had a client come in, she’d take paperwork to Curry.
Sheila Watts
With Watts, Gross shifted from the workplace to church.
Watts has two sons and has known Cox for about 30 years.
“Mike Cox was instrumental in my kids going to church where he was a youth pastor,” said Watts about Cox’s time at First United Methodist in Abilene.
One of her sons was predisposed to substance abuse and she placed him in rehab. It didn’t work.
“Mike and Kim said if we spend our money, maybe it would mean more,” she said, adding her son has now been clean and sober for eight years.
When her sons’ father died in 2015, they asked Cox to do the funeral. When the son with drug issues got married, Cox officiated,” she said, adding her sons still have a strong relationship with Cox.
Megan Boyd
Boyd was invited by a friend to a youth group Cox led at First United Methodist in Abilene. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go to a youth group but wanted the girl to be her friend.
“My parents were divorced, my mom had remarried but life was hard,” Boyd said.
“I was captivated by Mike and Kim. They were so welcoming. They accepted me. Meeting Mike and Kim – that’s what I want. A marriage like that,” she said.
Boyd stayed in touch with the Coxes even after she went to college locally at Hardin-Simmons University, where she played volleyball.
When the couple had their first of two daughters, Boyd went to the hospital to visit. She babysat and cleaned their house to make some money, she said.
When Boyd married, Cox officiated the wedding.
“They cut short a family trip to Disney World,” Boyd said. Kim was her matron of honor and their daughter was her flower girl.
Chris Criswell
Criswell and Cox played intramural football against each other as Texas Tech students.
Cox was in his wedding and they’ve known each other for about 35 years.
Criswell now lives in the Houston area, is involved in the energy industry, construction and is a college football coach in the Mediterranean for Near East University.
At the end of each witness, Joseph Blackwell, assistant United States attorney, asked if they had invested in Ferrum. When he got to Criswell, he said he knew Criswell has invested in Ferrum.
The defense objected and shortly after that, Blackwell did not probe further, saying he was done.
