Jenifer O’Neal’s motion to seal her sentencing request and accompanying 24 letters of support was denied by a federal judge Wednesday, the day before the former V.I. Management and Budget director is due to be sentenced for wire fraud, bribery and money laundering conspiracy.
O’Neal’s attorney, Dale Lionel Smith, emailed the request and letters directly to the court Monday. In a motion filed Tuesday, he wrote that the “letter writers were assured that their letters would be read only by the court and parties and not placed on the public docket.”
“The letters contain personal and identifying information of the writers and the contents of the letters are inseparable from the memorandum,” according to Smith. The memo also references information that remains under a judicial protective order, “and the information should remain that way” in case O’Neal is granted a new trial “in this very small community.”
U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kearney denied the 11th-hour motion to seal O’Neal’s “long overdue” memo Wednesday and wrote that he did not find “a basis to preclude public access for issues required to be resolved in the public courtroom” after reviewing the documents and letters himself. He ordered O’Neal to file the materials “forthwith” — emphasis his — including her “request for variance with the proffered letters of support (if she wishes our consideration), redacting only street addresses of persons providing letters of support.”
Those documents had not appeared on the public docket by Wednesday evening.
O’Neal’s sentencing comes two days after that of her codefendant, former V.I. Police Commissioner Ray Martinez, and a day after that of David Whitaker, a cybersecurity contractor who became a government witness. Martinez and Whitaker both filed sentencing requests and multiple letters of support from friends, family and supporters ahead of their own sentencing hearings. Kearney regularly tells defendants during such hearings that he appreciates and values the letters when considering what sentence to impose.
The government has recommended a seven-year term of incarceration for O’Neal along with a $100,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
“The conduct at issue was calculated, deliberate, and grounded in greed, self-interest, and a complete betrayal of the public trust,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Cherrisse Amaro and Alexandre Dempsey, a trial attorney with the U.S. Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, last week.
O’Neal and Martinez resigned in June 2024 after federal investigators seized their phones and other materials amid an investigation into their dealings with Whitaker and his company, Mon Ethos Pro Support. Both were indicted in January 2025. Separately, former V.I. Sports, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Calvert White and businessman Benjamin Hendricks were indicted at the same time for selling a $2.1 million contract to Mon Ethos for the promise of a $16,000 kickback.
