As Saint Augustine’s University fights to retain accreditation, a legal battle continues to fester between the university’s current board chair, Brian Boulware, and a former trustee who invested in his cigar bar business.
The INDY and The Assembly reported last week that George Brooks, a UPS executive from Atlanta and then-trustee at Saint Augustine’s University, sued Boulware, his fellow trustee at the time, to recoup a $600,000 investment that he had made into Boulware’s cigar bar in Fairburn, Georgia.
The court ruled in Brooks’s favor at a trial in January 2025, ordering Boulware to pay him more than $670,000. Boulware filed a motion shortly after asking for a new trial, arguing that he could not appear in court to defend himself due to a chronic bronchitis diagnosis and that he lacked proper representation because his former lawyer withdrew from the case in October.
On Monday, Brooks’s lawyer, Vernon Strickland, filed a response to the new trial request, arguing that Boulware had already “unnecessarily delayed the trial” by two years. Strickland also wrote that Boulware had allegedly “threatened” a key witness who was set to testify regarding how Boulware spent the money lent to him, including payments he made to a current employee at Saint Augustine’s University.
In response to a request for comment, Boulware directed INDY to his lawyer, Leon Jones, who wrote in an email that Boulware “disputes facts and allegation[s]” in the latest court filing and will respond with “whatever pleadings … are deemed appropriate in this regard.”
The development in the case comes as Saint Augustine’s University awaits the imminent results of an appeal hearing that will determine whether it retains accreditation, which it lost in December. As INDY and The Assembly previously reported, internal complaints and lawsuits have raised concerns about the university’s board of trustees and revealed deep disputes about how the board has managed the institution in recent years.
When the court ruled in Brooks’s favor in January, it found that Boulware had been “abusing” his business bank accounts “as a mere extension of his personal affairs,” spending over $100,000 on hotels, meals, entertainment, and the purchase of a Range Rover. The court also found that Boulware made payments to Wanda Wagner, an events and real estate manager at SAU.
In response, Boulware’s lawyer wrote that the payments for hotels, meals and entertainment were “necessary business expenses for marketing and development of business in the cigar store industry,” and that the Range Rover was also a legitimate business expense. The payments to Wagner, the court filings said, were to “purchase supplies for the operation” of his personal companies. (Wagner did not respond to a request for comment.)
Following Boulware’s appeal of the court decision, Brooks’s most recent filing requested that a judge block the request for a new trial or reconsideration of the ruling. The filing alleged that Boulware “threatened” his former business partner, Roger Henderson, after learning that he was listed as a possible witness for Brooks. The court filings indicate that Henderson would have testified about the alleged “personal” purchases Boulware made and his payments to Wagner.
According to an exhibit in the court filing, Boulware wrote in a text message to Henderson: “Don’t make me fuck you up ONSITE! Chill with the bullshit … No more words need to be spoken.”
Henderson responded: “I’ll make sure the lawyers and officers of the court get this. I feel my life is in danger. Threatening a witness is against the law.”
Brooks resigned from SAU’s board of trustees in fall 2024. Strickland, Brooks’s lawyer, said that he and his client hope that the judge will deny Boulware’s motion and uphold the initial ruling.
In addition to Brooks’s lawsuit, Boulware has been sued for nonpayment by two additional lenders who invested in his cigar business, a contractor whom he personally worked with who also conducted work at Saint Augustine’s University, and American Express National Bank. (Boulware successfully contested one of the nonpayment lawsuits from a cigar bar lender.)
INDY and The Assembly reported last week that more than a dozen employees have accused SAU’s board of overreach or misconduct in recent years according to lawsuits, internal complaints, and other documents. The allegations—which include silencing dissenting opinions, wrongful termination, and violations of university policies and SACS requirements—focus predominantly on Boulware and James Perry, the immediate past chair who continues to serve as a trustee. The university denied all allegations of wrongdoing on behalf of Boulware and Perry.
One alumni group, Save SAU, sued the school last summer in hopes of reconstituting the board, singling out some of Boulware’s existing business relationships in their complaint. (The lawsuit was dismissed in the fall due to lack of standing.) Boulware denied allegations of wrongdoing and called the Save SAU complaint “defamatory” in his response to the lawsuit. The state attorney general’s office is now investigating the school over allegations involving the board of trustees, a spokesperson for the attorney general told INDY and The Assembly.
A decision on the university’s accreditation appeal hearing, which was held on February 27, is expected in the coming days.
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Chloe Courtney Bohl is a corps member for Report for America. Reach her at chloe@indyweek.com.
Erin Gretzinger is a higher education reporter at The Assembly. She was previously a reporting fellow at The Chronicle of Higher Education and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. You can reach her at erin@theassemblync.com.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.