The president and co-owner of Stone Academy testified in a virtual hearing Monday regarding the lawsuit brought on by former students after the school abruptly closed in February.
Joseph Bierbaum, president and co-owner of Stone Academy, was called to the stand on Monday.
“As a 25% owner, did you think you owed any obligation to the students of stone academy for their welfare?” asked David Slossberg, attorney representing the Stone Academy students.
“Yes, since I started,” Bierbaum replied.
Earlier this year, eight former Stone Academy students took legal action against the school and its leaders. They claim the school misled its students to believe it was offering a reputable and viable nursing program.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
“The school failed to maintain student records in a manner required by other statutes and regulations,” Slossberg read from a letter the Office of Higher Education (OHE) sent to Stone Academy leaders back in 2022.
That claim is one of several violations the OHE brought to the attention of Stone Academy in late 2022. On the stand, Bierbaum claimed the OHE did not provide enough insight into the alleged violations.
“The State of Connecticut did not provide us with any depth as to what actually was going to need to be fixed because there was no follow up, we didn’t have the luxury of the information that you showed earlier from Department of Public Health, and at that point, they were asking for an audit on items where they didn’t even identify the depth of what they were,” Bierbaum said.
The OHE told NBC Connecticut it did not have a response to those claims.
When asked by the Slossberg, Bierbaum also claimed that on Feb. 10, the Attorney General’s Office told the school it had to close.
In response, the AG’s office stood by its statement from June, refuting “efforts by Stone Academy to rewrite history,” and to “falsely blame its mismanagement and abrupt closure on state officials.”
