New questions about the Durham Foundation, CJF America. The Troubleshooter ITEAM has been investigating the foundation for weeks, first for not paying the Durham restaurant, The Chicken Hut, for meals they provided to CJF’s summer camp, which they eventually paid after ABC11 stories. We also heard from more than a dozen employees who said they haven’t been paid for their work.
Now, ABC11 Troubleshooter Diane Wilson has uncovered new non-payment allegations. The foundation is being accused of not paying rent at its CJF America Durham office since June. This current complaint filed in Durham County Small Claims Court initiates the eviction process for CJF America from their Durham office in this business complex along Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd. When Wilson went to CJF’s office, we found the lights out and the door locked. The management company of the building filed a complaint against CJF America, saying they are owed more than $9,600 for June, July, and August rent.
Besides this complaint, the ITEAM also found another complaint from 2023. In this case, CJF allegedly didn’t pay $8,000 worth of rent for a lease at a Raleigh location. According to the property management company in the 2023 case, CJF signed the lease, but never paid the lease agreement despite multiple promises to pay. According to the court document, multiple attempts were made to contact CJF, but neither CJF nor the president of CJF, Kristen Picot, was served in the case. The property manager says they tried all the way into 2024 to serve CJF, but it never happened, and she says the judge refused to hear the case until CJF was served.
When it comes to Picot, Wilson has tried to get answers for the employees of CJF who say they are owed thousands after they got these paychecks for their weeks of work at the foundation, either as summer camp counselors or executives. Like Briana Thompson, who worked as a CJF camp counselor at the Durham camp. She says when she got her first paycheck and went to the bank, “They said that they couldn’t cash our checks because it hadn’t been verified.” Dr. Cherisse Collins also worked for months at CJF and said her paycheck couldn’t be cashed. “We went to the bank and were told that there was no money in the account,” Collins adds…