The federal probe into LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has swept up a Florida guide who had a toddler with Bob Marley’s legendary guitarist — a son who later turned a Hollywood actor.
The lady is Debra Kerr, a Jamaica-born training guide and a former Miss Jamaica runner-up whose son, David “Davo” Kerr Jr., is a Los Angeles-based rapper and actor. Davo’s father is Junior Marvin, the legendary guitarist for Bob Marley & The Wailers.
Davo appeared within the 2024 biopic “Bob Marley: One Love,” wherein he portrayed his personal father, Marvin, the guitarist who joined Bob Marley & The Wailers in 1977 after famously turning down a proposal to hitch Stevie Marvel’s band.
The movie, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Inexperienced and starring Kingsley Ben-Adir as Marley, chronicled the reggae icon’s rise and the recording of the landmark album “Exodus.”
Davo landed the function after reaching out on to casting, later describing the expertise as deeply private.
Kerr’s LinkedIn profile describes her as CEO of LeadershipMax LLC, a Hollywood, Fla.–primarily based consulting agency she launched in 2017 after leaving company America.
She payments herself as a “extremely completed Gross sales and Advertising Govt” with centered experience within the Ok-12 training trade and expertise driving income development and market improvement.
Earlier than hanging out on her personal, Kerr held senior roles at training publishing big Pearson, the place she rose to senior vp for North America, and later served as head of gross sales at Age of Studying, the corporate behind ABCmouse, a subscription-based studying program for youngsters ages 2 to eight.
Her résumé highlights accountability for managing regional gross sales groups, overseeing authorities relationships and rising Ok-12 market share throughout a number of states.
Junior Marvin, born in Jamaica and raised in London, constructed a globe-spanning profession earlier than becoming a member of Bob Marley & The Wailers.
As a toddler actor, he appeared in The Beatles’ 1965 movie “Assist!” and later honed his guitar chops within the US alongside blues legend T-Bone Walker and Ike and Tina Turner.
Again in Britain, he carried out with acts together with the Keef Hartley Band and his personal rock outfit Hanson earlier than turning into a key member of Marley’s band in 1977.
FBI brokers on Wednesday executed search warrants at Carvalho’s San Pedro house, his downtown LA workplace and a $1.4 million South Florida residence belonging to Kerr as a part of a sealed federal investigation.
The probe is tied to the failed AI training startup AllHere, which secured a contract price as much as $6 million with LAUSD to develop a chatbot referred to as “Ed.” The district in the end spent roughly $3 million earlier than shutting the challenge down.
No arrests have been made as of Thursday morning.
AllHere’s founder and former CEO, Joanna Smith-Griffin, was arrested in 2024 and charged in Manhattan federal court docket with securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identification theft.
Prosecutors allege she fabricated income figures and misled traders concerning the firm’s monetary well being. AllHere later filed for Chapter 7 chapter.
Carvalho has denied private involvement within the vendor choice course of and beforehand mentioned the allegations in opposition to Smith-Griffin, “if true,” represented a “disturbing and disappointing home of playing cards.”
LAUSD has mentioned it’s cooperating with federal authorities.
Kerr, a Florida-based training guide with ties to Carvalho courting again to his tenure main Miami-Dade County Public Colleges, labored with AllHere as a guide. She has claimed in chapter proceedings that the corporate owes her $630,000 in unpaid commissions tied to the LAUSD deal.
Kerr publicly praised Carvalho in a LinkedIn submit three years in the past, sharing a photograph of herself smiling alongside the superintendent at what she described as his “Opening of Colleges Handle.”
Within the picture, Kerr stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Carvalho and different officers exterior what seems to be a district occasion, captioning the submit: “Superintendent’s Opening of Colleges Handle was sensible,” adopted by hashtags together with #lausd and #leadershipmatters.
Her son, Richard Kerr, was an AllHere account govt who advised an training outlet that he pitched the corporate’s providers to LAUSD leaders.
He has described his mom as enjoying a “important function” in closing the contract.
